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1684. 1884. 

CELEBRATION 



TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY 



NAMING OF WORCESTER, 



OCTOBER 14 AND 15, 1884. 






WORCESTEE, MASS. : 
PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL. 

MDCCCLXXXV. 



'? 






WOltCESTEK : 
PltESS OF CHAS. HAMILTON. 

1885. 



At its meeting of December 8th, 1884, the City Council, 
by concurrent action of the Board of Aldermen and the 
Common Council, passed the following: 

December 8th, 1884. 

Resolved, That the thanks of the Cit}^ Council be and are 
hereby tendered to the Hon. George F. Hoar for his able, 
instructive and eloquent oration delivered before the members 
of the City Government and citizens at large, on the occa- 
sion of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the naming of 
Worcester. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be presented to 
the Hon. George F. Hoar. 

Approved December 10, 1884. 

Charles G. Reed, Mayor. 

An order was passed by the City Council, November 24, 
1884: 

"To provide for the suitable publication of the History of 
the Anniversary, the same to be charged to the account of 
Incidental Expenses." 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAOB8. 

11-23 
I. Thk Preparations 

rti_OQ 

II. Responses to Invitations, 

III. The Evening Celebration 

37-42 

IV. Address of the Mayor 

JOQO 

V. Oration of Senator Hoar 

VI. Address of Gov. Robinson, ®^"^* 

84—92 

VII. Address of Gen. Devens 

VIII. The Street Parade and other Observances of the Day, . 93-111 

1 13-137 
IX. Historical Notes, 

X. WOHCBSTER OF TO-PaY, 1<S» 1« 

XI. Industrial Notes, and Worcester Industries in 1836, . 144-149 

XII. Worcester Industries in 1884, 1 

XIII. Bibliography and Chronology, 167-176 



' I "HE "Committee on Historical Facts" for the celebration 
■*- by the City of Worcester of the Two Hundredth Anni- 
versary of the naming of the town, present in this volume the 
result of their labors. 

After the action of the City Council authorizing the print- 
ing of an account of the celebration with historical and 
statistical notes, a sub-committee was appointed by the Mayor 
to take charge of the publication. This committee, consisting 
of Nathaniel Paine, Henry M. Smith and Ellery B. 
Crane, have had the immediate charge of the preparation 
and printing of the matter contained in these pages. The 
account of the procession, the decorations and the various 
exercises of the occasion, has been compiled from the daily 
papers of the city, and the historical, statistical and biblio- 
graphical notes have been prepared by members of the 
sub-committee. 

CHARLES G. REED, Mayor. 

HENRY A. MARSH. 

HENRY M. SMITH. 

EDWARD W. LINCOLN. 

ELLERY B. CRANE. 

HENRY L. SHUMWAY. 

NATHANIEL PAINE. 

RICHARD O'FLYNN. 

SAMUEL S. GREEN. 

Worcester, Mass., May, 1885. 



BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



P R E r A R A i I N S 



THE PETITION. 



To the Honorable the Mayor 

and City Council of Worcester : — 

The undersigned citizens of Worcester would respectfully 
represent, that, inasmuch as within the autumn of the year 
current takes place the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the 
naming of the Settlement of Worcester, by order of the 
General Court, in their view the occasion presented is one 
that our citizens and all sons of Worcester, at home and 
abroad, must welcome as opportune for the suitable commem- 
oration of the facts of the growth of our community through 
two hundred 3'ears, and some adequate illustration and show- 
ing of the Worcester of to-day. 

We respectfully ask your honorable body to so recognize 
the forthcoming event as to appoint committees to co-operate 
with our citizens at large, and organized bodies in our midst, 



12 



BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



for the adoption of such measures as may seem best and 
fitting. 

Worcester, May 24, 1884. 



E. B. CKANE, 
p. C. BACON, 
S. E. HILDRETH, 
STEPHEN SALISBURY, 
NATH'L PAINE, 
H. B. STAPLES, 
CHARLES A. CHASE, 
WM. T. HARLOW, 

E. M. BARTON, 
EDWARD L. DAVIS, 
SAMUEL R. HEYWOOD, 
C. M. MILES, 

B. W. POTTER, 
EMORY BANISTER, 
W. W. RICE, 

W. A. DENHOLM, 

F. H. KINNICUTT. 
T. W. HAMMOND, 

C. S. TURNER, 

W. T. MEKRIFIELD, 
DANIEL SEAGRAVE, 
STEPHEN SALISBURY, .Jr., 
P. EMORY ALDRICH, 
GEORGE CHANDLEK, 
F. H. DEWEY, 
E. B. STODDARD, 
WM. S. LINCOLN, 
SAMUEL H. PUTNAM, 
FRANKLIN P. RICE, 
CHARLES B. PRATT, 
J. HENRY HILL, 
EDWARD W. LINCOLN, 



CHARLES E. SANFORD, 
ALBERT TOLMAN, 
CLARK .TILLSON, 
HENRY M. SMITH, 
ADIN THAYER, 
H. A. MARSH, 
GEO. CROMPTON, 
HENRY W. MILLER, 
G. HENRY WHITCOMB, 
JAMES H. MELLEN, 
SAMUEL WOODWARD, 
G. J. RUGG, 

CHARLES F. WASHBURN, 
M. J. WHITTALL, 
DAVID WHITCOMB. 
S. M. RICHARDSON, 
PHILIP L. MOEN, 
W. E. RICE, 

D. H. FANNING, 

E. W. VAILL, 
JOHN S. B.VLDWIN. 
JONAS G. CLARK, 
GEORGE SUMNER, 
M. J. McCAFFERTY, 
CALEB A. W.VLL, 
JEROME MARBLE, 
BENJ. J. DODGE, 
GEO. S. BARTON, 

J. PICKETT, 
E. P. CURTIS, 
E. A. GOODNOW, 
CHARLES B. WHITING. 



CITY OF WORCESTER, 



The foregoing petition was presented to the Board of Alder- 
men at their meeting of Ma}' 26, and by them referred to a 
Joint Special Committee and the Common Council concurring, 
the Committee was constituted as follows : — 

Joint Special Committee. 

The Mayor, and Aldermen Thayer, Porter and Clark. 
The President of the Common Council, and Councilmen 
Estey, Early, Crawford and Ratigan. 

The Committee reported June 23rd, but their report was 
recommitted and no definite action was reached until the close 
of the summer vacation. 

In the meantime consultation and inquiry were left to 
quietly shape the forthcoming event, and prepare for active 
operations, brought forward on August 11th, in the Common 
Council by the following order which was also passed and 
concurred in bv the Board of Aldermen, granting the prayer 
of the petition and providing for such response as follows : 



Ordered, That a sura not exceeding FicK Thousand Dollars be, and the same 
is hereby appropriated to defray the expense which may be incurred by his 
Honor tlie Mayor, Aldermen Thayer, Porter and Brady, ttie President of the 
Council, and Councilmen Estey, Early, Crawford and Ratigan, acting as a 
Joint Special Committee in Celebrating the Two Hundredth Anniversary of 
the Naming of the Settlement of Worcester. 

And that the Ma.yor be, and is herLl)y authorized to draw his drafts on the 
City Treasurer for the payment of all such bills of expenditure as shall be 



14 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

authorized and approved by said Committee for said purpose, to tlie atiiount 
of said sum. The same to be charged to the account for Incidental Expenses. 
Approved August IMh, 1884. 

CHARLES G. REED, Mayor. 



A supplementary order in the same connection is given 
place here, as follows : — 

December 8th, 1884. 
Ordered, That One Thousand Dollars be and the same is hereby appropri- 
ated for expenses of the the Bi-Centeonial Celebration, said sum to be 
expended under the direction of the Committee having said matter in charge, 
this amount being additional to five thousand dollars appropriated by an 
order of the City Council, adopted August 11, 1884, the same to be charged 
to the account of Incidental Expenses. 

Approved December 10, 1884. 

CHARLES G. REED, Mayor. 



I 



BICENTENNIAL COMMITTEES. 



At a meeting of the Joint Special Committee of the City 
Council held August 15th, to carry forward arrangements for 
the Celebration, the Bi-Centennial Committee was formally 
constituted as follows : — 



Executive Committee. 



CITY GOVERNMENT. 



CHARLES G. REED, Mayor. 

Aldermen THAYER, PORTER, BRADY; 

CouNciLMEN E. O. PARKER (President), ESTEY, EARLY, CRAWFORD. 

CITIZENS AT LARGE. 

HENRY A. MARSH and WALDO LINCOLN. 

Committee on Beeeption. 

CHARLES G. REED, Mayor. 

PETER C. BACON, WILLIAM W. RICE, P. EMORY ALDRICH, 

PHINEHAS BALL, CLARK JILLSON, EDWARD L. DAVIS, 

CHARLES B. PRATT, FRANK H. KELLEY, E. B. STODDARD, 

SAMUEL E. HILDRETH, 

WAXDO LINCOLN, J. H. WALKER, P. L. MOEN, A. G. WALKER, 

WILLIAM E. RICE, GEORGE S. BARTON, 

HAMILTON B. STAPLES, GEORGE CROMPTON, 

HENRY A. MARSH, J. HENRY HILL, 

T. L. NELSON. 

JOHN R. THAYER, President of Board of Aldermen; E. O. PARKER, 

President of the Council; F. P. GOULDING, 

City Solicitor. 



16 



BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



CommiUee on Invitations. 

CHARLES G. REED, Mayor. 

Alderman TUAYEK, Prksidbnt of Council PARKER, 

Councilman EARLY. 

.1. EVARTS GREENE, CHARLES H. DOE, M. J. McCAFFERTY, 

T. S. JOHNSON. 



Committee on Oration and Literary Exercises. 

CHARLES G. REED, Mayor. 

Alderman THAYER, Pkesidknt of Council PARKER. 

FRANK A. GASKILLL, HENRY A. MARSH, JOHN J. CASEY, 

NATHANIEL PAINE. 

Committee on Historical Facts. 

CHARLES G. REED, Mayor. 

HENRY A. MARSH, HENRY M. SMITH, EDWARD W. LINCOLN, 

E. B. CRANE, HENRY L. SHUMWAY, NATHANIEL PAINE, 

RICHARD O'FLYNN, SAMUEL S. GREEN. 

Committee on Trades Procession.^ 

Alderman BRADY, Councilmen CRAWFORD and RATIGAN. 

HENRY M. SMITH, WALDO LINCOLN, HENRY A. MARSH, 

E. B. CRANE, DANIEL DOWNEY, OSCAR F. RAWSON, 

W. H. RAYMENTON, ANDREW ATHY, IVER JOHNSON, 

M. J. WHITTALL, FERD. GAGNON. 

Committee on Procession. 

E. O. PARKER, President City Council, Councilman EARLY. 

CHARLES B. WHITING, R. JAMES TATMAN, ANDREW ATMY, 

M. J. WHITTALL, JOHN F. H. MOONEY, J. C. MacINNES, 

AMOS WEBBER, BENJ. ZAEDER, GEORGE B. WITTER, 

A. P. MARBLE, SIMON E. COMBS, 

GEORGE McALEER. 

Committee on Illuminations, Salute and Tableaux. 

Councilman EARLY. 

H. R. CUMMINGS, J. STEWART BROWN, C. H. CARPENTER. 

STEPHEN SALISBURY, Jr., CHARLES H.\RTWELL, 

J. C. MacINNES, GEORGE B. WITTER. 



1 The arrangements for a Trades Procession were not carried out, for reasons stated 
on page 17. 



BI-CENTENNIAL COMMITTEES. 17 

Committee on Decorations and Emblems. 

CouNCiLMEN ESTEY AND RATIGAN. 

HENRY L. SHUMWAY, JOHN J. CASEY, R. JAMES TATMAN, 

CHAS. B. WHITING, BENJ. ZAEDER, IVER JOHNSON, AMOS WEBBER, 

C. H. CARPENTER, J. STEWART BROWN, 

DANIEL DOWNEY, WILLIAM J. HOGG, FERD. GAGNON, 

W. H. RAYMENTON, OSCAR F. RAWSON. 

Committee on Firevwrks. 

COUNCILMEN CRAWFORD AND RATIGAN. 

J. STEWART BROWN, JOHN F. H. MOONEY, W. H. RAYMENTON, 

CHARLES HARTWELL, MOSES A. LOWE. 

H. R. CUMMINGS. 

Committee on Printing. 

Al.DKKMAN BRADY. 

RICHARD O'FLYNN, O. F. HADWEN, H. M. SMITH, F. A. GASKIIX, 

E. B. CRANE. 

Committee on Entertainment. 
E. O. PARKER, R. J. TATMAN, C. B. WHITING. 

Committee on Railroads. 
OSCAR F. RAWSON, H. Y. SIMPSON, E. D. STODDARD. 

Committee on Balloon Ascen.iinji. 
W. H. RAYMENTON, WALDO LINCOLN, HENRY A. MARSH. 

An active canvass of the various possible and feasible 
features of the Celebration was made, especially with reference 
to the co-operation of the business and manufactin-ing indus- 
tries of the city in a Trades Procession. But the limited time 
in which to render the last named feature worth}' of the city, 
as well as fittingly the successor of the great Trades Proces- 
sion of 1876, induced the abandonment of this part of the 
desired programme. 



18 



BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



Invitations were issued to all the various organizations of 
the city to participate in a Military and Civic Procession on 
the morning of Wednesdajs October 15th, and the nature of 
their responses will be shown in the pages recording this 
feature of the celebration. 

The following invitation was extended to the Governor of 
Massachusetts and to the Governors of other New England 
States, to Mayors of New England cities, to Ex-Mayors and 
former members of the City Government of Worcester, and 
to man}^ of the representative sons of Worcester resident 
abroad. 

The City of Worcester 



1684. 




1884. 



cordially invites 



to be present as the City's guest, at the 

Two Hundredth Anniversary 

of the naming of Worcester, 

October fourteenth and fifteenth. 

Charles G. Reed, Mayor. 



In accordance with the unanimous action of the General 
Committee an invitation was extended to Hon. George F. 
Hoar to deliver an address to the City Government and 
people of Worcester and their guests, at Mechanics Hall on 
the evening of Tuesday, October 14th, and Mr. Hoar's 
acceptance of the invitation was received by the Committee 
on August 28th. 



BI-CENTENNIAL COMMITTEES. 19 

Gen. Josiah Pickett was appointed Chief Marshal, to have 
in charge the Military and Civic Procession of Wednesday, 
15th. 

The preliminary labors of the Bi-Centennial Committee 
resulted in the announcement of the following general pro- 
gramme : — 

The City of Worcester 




Will celebrate, on October 14th and 15th, 1884, 
the Tioo Hundredth Anniversary of the action of 
the General Court giving to the infant settlement 
the name of Worcester. 

PROGRAMME. 

Tuesday Eveniug, October 14th. 

General lUumiaation. 

Literary Exercises iu Meclianics Hall, 

With Oration by 

The Hon. George Frisbib Hoar, 

U. S. Senator. 



Wednesday, October loth, 

A. M. 

Military and Civic Procession. 

p. M. 

Balloon Ascension, Promenade Concerts, 

and 

Grand Exhibition of Fireworks 

On Newton Hill. 



I 

20 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

A more complete announcement of the General Programme 
was made by the Committee by advertisements in the daily 
newspapers, English, Swedish and French, as follows : — 

THE CITY OF WORCESTER 

Will Celebrate 

October U and 15, 1884, 

THE TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY 

Of the action of the General Court, driving to the Infant Settle- 
ment the name of Worcester. 



PUOUKAMME. 

Tuesday Evening, October 14, 

From G to 7 o'clock. 

Plymouth Chimes will be rung by Prof. Walter V. V. Marsh, 

of Albany. 

General Illumination of the City. 
Literary Exercises in Mechanics Hall, 

At 7 : 30 o'clock. 

Oration by the Hon. George F. Hoar, 

U. S. Senator. 



Wednesday, October 15, 

Sunrise Salute, 100 guns, by Battery B, from the 

Agricultural Grounds. 

From 9 to 10 A. M. Plymouth Chimes, by Prof. Marsh. 

At 10 A. M. 

Military and Civic Procession. 

From 1 to 2 P. M. Plymouth Chimes, by Prof. Marsh. 

At 3 P. M. 

Balloon Ascension. 

Mammoth Balloon, " City of Boston," in charge of the experienced 

aeronaut, James K. .\llen, of Providence, carryiu.u four 

person-i, from Quinsigamond Avenue, near 

City G.as Works. 

From 3 to 4 : .30 P. M. 

Open Air Band Concerts. 

At points as follows: — 1. Quiu-sigamond Avenue. 2. Court 

House Hill. 3. The Old Common. 4. Elm Park. 

5. Webster Square. 6. New School-house 

on Gage Street. 



CHIEF MARSHAL AND STAFF. 21 

At 4 : 30 P. M. 

Military Dress Parade on the Old Common. 

Sunset Salute by Battery B, from Agricultural Grounds. 

From 6 to 7 P. M. Plymouth Chimes, by Prof. Marsh. 

At 7 P. M. 

A Grand Exhibition of Fireworks on Newton Hill, opposite Elm 

Park. The Boulevard in front reserved exclusively 

for spectators. 



Liberal arrangements have been made by all the Railroads entering 

the city for Excursion Tickets and Special Trains, for 

panticulars of which see special railway 

time cards. 

By Order of Thk Committee. 
Worcester, October 10, 1884. 

In the same manner Chief Marshal Pickett issued the fol- 
lowing order for the Bi-Centennial Procession. 

HEADQUARTERS OF THE CHIEF MARSHAL. 

Room 14, 492 Main Street. 

Worcester, Mass., October 13, 1884. 

Gen. Order No. 3. 

The following is the order of formation of the Bi-Ccntennial Procession on 
the fifteenth day of October, 1884 :— 

CHrEP marshal's escort. 

The Worcester Continentals, Col. W. S. B. Hopkins, 
Commanding. 

CHIEF MARSHAL AND STAPF. 

First Division. — Marshal, Gen. R. H. Chamljerlain ; Assistant Marshals, 
Major E. U. Shumway, Lieut. P. L. Rider, and J. F. Adams; Worcester 
Light Infantry; Worcester City Guards; Garduer Light Infantry; Post 10, 
G. A. R. ; Sons of Veterans; Einraet Guards; St. John's Cadets; Sacred 
Heart Cadets: St. Anne's Cadets; St. Anne's Guards; Worcester Light 
Battery ; Guests in Carriages. 

Second Division. — Marshal, Major Nathan Taylor; Assistant Marshals, 
Capt. C. N. Hair, Dr. W. H. Sears, Horace W. Willson ; Worcester Uniformed 
Degree Camp, No. 3, I. O. 0. F. ; Wachusett Encampment, No. 10, I. 0. 
O. F. ; Mt. Vernon Encampment, No. 53, I. O. O. F. ; Quinsigamond Lodge, 
No. 43, I. O. O. F. ; Central Lodge, No. 168, I. O. O. F. ; Ridgely Lodge, No. 



22 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

112, I. O. O. K. ; Blake Lodge, No. 49, Kniglit.s of Pythias; Damascus Lodge, 
No. 50, Knights of Pythias; Integrity Lodge, No. 1768, G. U. O. F. ; Prince 
Consort Lodge, No. 23, Sons of St. George; St. Andrew's Society; High 
Scliool Battalion; Iroquois Tribe Improved Order of Red Men. 

Timti) Division.— M:irslial, Andrew Athy ; Assistant Marshals, William 
Hickey, B. H. McMahoii, P. .1. Qiiinn; Knights of Father Maltliew ; Father 
Mattlu.'w Total Abstinence Society ; Irish Catholic Benevolent Union ; Ancient 
Order Hibernians, Division 4,. with visiting order from Milford; Ancient 
Order Hibernians; Sacred Heart Mutual Benefit Society ; St. .John's Temper- 
ance Guild; Volunteers of '82. 

FouKTii Division.— Marshal, Capt. George L. Allen; Assistant Marshals, 
Capt. Levi Lincoln, Lieut. Henry S. Knight, Charles H. Bowker; Garde 
Lafayette; St. Jean Baptiste Society; Reform Club; Stationary Engineers; 
Viking Council Order of Mystic Brothers; German Societies; Mechanics 
Association; Worcester County Agricultural Society; Society of Antiquity ; 
Washington Social Club ; Grangers. 

Fifth DmsiON.— Marshal, Chief Engineer Simon E. Combs; Ex-Firemen; 
Worcester Fire Department. 

The Worcester Continentals will form on Main Street, left resting on Park 
Street. 

The First Division Infantry will form on Park Street, right resting on 
Main Street. Light Battery B, M. V. M., will form on Salem Square, right 
resting on Park Street. Carriages with invited guests will form on Main 
Street in double lines, head resting on Park Street. 

Second Division will form on Pleasant Street, right resting on Main Street. 

Third Division will form on Frout Street, right resting on Main Street. 

Fourth Division will form on Elm Street, right resting on Main Street. 

Fifth Division will form on Foster Street, right resting on Main Street. 

All organizations must report to the Marshal of the Division to which 
they have been assigned, promptly at 9 o'clock A. M. 

The Division Marshals with tlieir Assistants are directed to be present at 
the head of the streets on which tlieir respective divisions are to form, punc- 
tually at 9 o'clock A. M., and proceed at once to organize their divisions. 

At 10 o'clock a signal will be given of two (2) strokes on the Fire Alarm 
bell. Marshals of Divisions at this signal will immediately wheel their 
commands into column and be ready to move. The Procession will move at 
10.15, and march over the following route: Main, Highland, Harvard, Bow- 
doin, Chestnut, Cedar, Oak, Elm, Ashland, Pleasant, Irving, Chatham, Main, 
May, Silver, Claremont, Main, Front, Bridge and Foster. The carriages 
containing the guests of the city will leave the line on Foster Street. The 
Procession will then continue the march, and when the head of each organiza- 
tion or society reaches Waldo Street it will be dismissed under command of 
its own officers. 

The streets through which the Procession is to pass must be kept clear of 
vehicles of all descriptions while the Procession is passing. It is expected 



PROCLAMATION. 23 

that the public will see the importance of a strict compliance with this 
request. 

The Staff of the Chiel' Marshal will report for duty at 8.30. and the Honorary 
Staff at 9 o'clock on the moruiug of the loth of October, at Headquarters, 
492 Main Street, room 14. The Honorary Staff will be under the direction of 
Gen. S. H. Leonard, assisted by Col. John M. Studley. 
By command of 

Gen. JOSIAH PICKETT, Chief Marshal. 
E. T. RAYMOND, Chief of Staff. 



Worcester, Mass., October 14, 1884. 
Having been ordered by the Mayor and Bonrd of Aldermen to keep the 
streets and squares, during the formation of the Procession, and the streets, 
during the march, cle:ir of vehicles of all descriptions, the Public are hereby 
•notified that a strict compliance with the order will be enforced. 

AMOS ATKINSON, 

City Marshal and Chief of Police. 

The following was issued by the Mayor on the date it 
bears : — 

A PROCLAMATION. 

Mayor's Okfice, October 9, 1884. 

The Citizens of Worcester are respectfully requested to co-operate with 
the City Council in the Celebration of the Two Hundredth Anniversary. It 
is the desire of the Executive Committee that every store, factory and dwell- 
ng on Main Street from Lincoln Square to Franklin Square, Front Street to 
Union Depot, Park Street and Salem Square around the Common, be illumi- 
nated on the evening of the 14th instant, by their owners or occupants, and 
such other portions of the City as individual citizens may desire, and that all 
buildings ou the route of the Procession be decorated on the morning of tlie 
16th, and that locations of historical interest, not only on the route of 
Procession, but all points of the City associated with the early days of 
Worcester, shall receive appropriate inscriptions by their occupants or 
owners, in addition to the general decoratiou, in which the citizens are 
invited to co-operate. 

The Public Schools and the Offices at the City Hall will be closed on the 
15th, and it is desired that there be a general suspension of business on that 
day, that employer and employed may actively participate in this, our 
Bi-Centennial, the general features of which, with route of Pi'ocession, will 
be found in the announcement of the General Committee. 

CHARLES G. REED, Mayor. 



RESPONSES TO TXYITATIONS. 



Among the City's guests, on the occasion of the celebration, 
participating in the exercises at Mechanics Hall and the 
Procession, were Governor George D. Robinson and Staff; 
Hon. Charles Devens ; Hon. E. R. Hoar; State Senator 
E. I. Thomas; Adjutant General Dalton ; Prof. Francis 
Andrew March and Major Ben : Perley Poore, both in early 
life among our residents ; and the following Mayors of New 
England cities : — 

Hon. Thomas A. Doylk, Mayor of Providence, R. I. 
Hon. Henry G. Lkwis, Mayor of New Haven, Ct. 
Hon. Daniel A. Morgan, Mayor of Bridgeport, Ct. 
Hon. J. C. Lathrop, Mayor of Dover, N. H. 
Hon. Calvin Pagk, Mayor of Portsmouth, N. H. 
Hon. John Brkkn, Mayor of Lawrence. 
Hon. James E. Uelaney, Mayor of Holyoke. 
Hon. John J. Dona von. Mayor of Lowell. 
Hon. J. Wesley Kimball, Mayor of Newton. 
Hon. Augustus P. Martin, Mayor of Boston. 
Hon. Thomas Strahan, Mayor of Chelsea. 
Hon. Alonzo Davis, Mayor of Fitchburg. 
Hon. Lewis I. Fuller, .Mayor of Maiden. 

The only survivors of the first City Government of Worces- 
ter in 1848, were Alderman James S. Woodworth, and 
Councilmen Daniel Goddard, William T. Merrifield. Calvin 
Foster and Albert Curtis, and the first Clerk of the Council, 
William A. Smith. These were among the invited guests of 
the occasion. 

Letters acknowledging receipt of invitation and regretting 
inability to be present were received tVom the Maj'ors of 
Worcester, England ; Fall River, Haverhill, Lynn, Newbury- 
port, Northampton, Salem, Somerville, Mass. ; xAugusta, 
Bangor, Biddeford, Gardiner, Lewiston, Portland, Saco, 
Me. ; Hartford, Meriden, Middletown, Ct. ; Concord, Keene, 
Nashua, N. H. ; Newport, R. L 



CORRESPONDENCE. 25 

Correspondence between Mayor Reed and the Mayor of 
Worcester, England. 

MAYOR REED'S LETTER TO THE MAYOR OF WORCESTER, ENG. 

Worcester, September 17th, 1884. 
Your Worship: 

A little more than two liuntlred years ago, a few settlers built 
their cabins in the primeval forests where our city now stands. Their title 
to the lands was obtained by purchase from the Indians and by giant from 
the General Court of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay in New Eni;land. 

On the 15th day of October, 168-t, the General Court, at the request of tlie 
proprietors, gave to the settlement, previously known as Quinsigamond, the 
name of Worcester. 

The two hundredth anniversary of that event it is our purpose to celebrate 
OQ the loth of next month, with appropriate ceremonies, and an address by 
our citizen, the Honorable George Frisbie Hoar, a Senator of the United 
States. 

Remembering that from your ancient city our Worcester derived its name, 
and that a friendship, which we trust may always continue, quickened by 
interchange of visits and kindly messages, has subsisted between our city and 
yours for more than two score years, it is our earnest desire that your city 
may join with ours in commemorating our acceptance of the name which the 
men of Worcester, in either hemisphere, will always cherish with pride and 
affection. 

We beg, therefore. Your Worship, that you or some other official representa- 
tive of the older Worcester, will visit ns at that time as the guest of our 
city. Your visit would give us great pleasure, and, vve trust, would not be 
without interest and satisfaction to yourself. 

With sentiments of great respect, I am Your Worship's 
Obedient Servant, 

CHARLES G. REED, 

Mayor of Worcester, Massachusetts. 

MAYOR WILLIAMSON'S REPLY. 

GniLDHALL, Worcester, 

. Old England, 1st October, 1884. 

To Charles G. Reed, Esq., 

Mayor of the City of Worcester, 

Massachusetts, U. S. A. 

Mt Dear Mr. Mayor : 

I am in receipt of yours of the 17th ultimo, for which 
I am obliged. 

I feel very greatly honoured by your kind invitation to visit your city, 
either in person or by deputy, on the 15th instant; but as I have many 
3 



26 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

engagements during this month, and right up to the 9th of November, when 
my term of office expires, I cannot see how it is possible for me to leave 
England. If it had not been for those circumstunces, nothing would have 
given rae greater pleasure, than to have taken the next steamer for New York, 
and from thence to have gone to Worcester, to be with you, and join in your 
festivities on the 15th instant. 

It is pleasing and gratifying to my fellow-citizens and myself to know that 
there exists between the CHizens of Worcester in the New Country and those 
of Worcester in the Old Country, such cordial feelings of respect and 
goodwill. Indeed, I may say on behalf of my fellow-citizens, that they 
esteem, with feelings of affectionate regard, the people over whom you have 
the honour to preside as Chief Magistrate. 

It must be gratifying to you to be Mayor of Worcester, in a year when so 
interesting an event is to take place, as that of celebrating the two hundredth 
anniversary of the founding of so important a city as yours. 

I heartily reciprocate the good feeling and kindness which have prompted 
you to offer to me, or a representative of Worcester, hospitality on that 
occasion. 

Several of my fellow-citizens who have visited you during the past few 
years have reported your generosity and kindness to them whilst sojourning 
with you. 

Could I or a representative avail ourselves of your kind invitation, I feel 
sure that you would greet us with a most hearty welcome. With you, Mr. 
Mayor, I sincerely hope that those kind relationships, which have subsisted 
between the two cities for so many years, may continue to increase and be 
•strengthened by the manly ties of true friendship. 

Wishing you and your City every success and prosperity in the future, 
with feelings of great respect, I am 

Your Worship's obedient Servant, 

W. B. WILLIAMSON, J. P., 

Mayor of Worcester, Old England. 



Guildhall, Worcester, 

10 October, 1884. 
7fte Worshipful The Mayor of Worcester, 

Massachusetts. 

Dear Mr. Mayor: 

I have the pleasure to inform you that the recent correspond- 
ence between us, with reference to the celebration of the two hundredth 
anniversary of your City, was laid before the Council of this City, at their 
meeting on the 7th instant, and that the following Resolution was unani- 
mously passed thereon : — 

"That this Council tender to the Mayor of Worcester, Massachusetts, their 
thanks for the very cordial invitation given to the Mayor of this City to be 



LETTERS. 27 

present at the celebratiou of the two hundiedtli auuiversary of the fouiRlatioii 
of the City of Worcester, Massachusetts. 

" This Council also desire to convey to the Mayor of Worcester, Massachu- 
setts, their congratulations upon so interesting an occasion and an assurance 
of their great interest in the progress and prosperity of the important City 
over which he presides, a City which so worthily represents in another 
hemisphere the name borne by this city for more tlian 1200 years." 

With feelings of great respect, 

I am, 

Your Worship's obedient Servant, 

W. B. WILLIAMSON, 

Mayor of IVorcester, Entjlaiid. 

The following were among the letters received by the 
Mayor as Chairman of the Committee on Invitations : — 

FROM GEORGE BANCROFT. 

OCTOBEU 11, 1884. 
To the Mayor of the City of Worcester : 

I am most sensible of the honor done me by 
your invitation to be your guest .at the great Bi-Centennial Celebration of my 
native place. Nothing but a complication of engagements which are 
absolutely beyond my control could keep me away from you on the occasion. 

I remain, dear Mr. Mayor, 

Most sincerely and respectfully yours, 

GEO. BANCROFT. 

FROM GOV. BOURN OF RHODE ISLAND. 

Bhistol, October 13, 18S4. 
My Ueau SiK : 

I regret exceedingly that I shall be unable to be present at the 
two hundredth anniversary of the naming of the City of Worcester. 

Permit me to congratulate the City of Worcester upon the completion of 
its two hundredth year, and to express tlie hope that its future may be no 
less prosperous than the past. 

Very Respectfully, 

Yours, 

AUGUSTUS O. BOURN. 

Hon. Charles G. Reed, Mayor, Worcester, Mass. 



28 Bl-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

FROM GOV. WALLER OF CONNECTICUT. 

State of Connecticut. Executive Department. 

Uartfoud, Octol)er4, 1S84. 
ills Honor Chaki.es G. Kf.kd, 

Mayor of Worcester. 

Sin: I rejiret that other engagements will prevent my acceptance of your 
invitation to l)e present at the Two Hundrolth .\nniversary of I lie naming of 
your beautiful and prosperous city. 

Hopinfi that the occasion will be enjoyed in a way to be remembered by all 
the participants, 

1 am truly yours, 

THOMAS M. WALLER. 

FROM GOV. HALE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
The State of New Hampsuiue. Execdtivb Depakt.ment. 

Concord, October 13, 1884. 
To Hon. Charles G. Reed, 

Worcester, Mass. 
Dear Sir : — 

Your favor iuvitiug me to be present at the Two Hundredth .Anni- 
versary of the naming of Worcester came duly to hand; and I have delayed 
answering the same until the last moment, hoping that I should be able to be 
present on the interesting occasion, but circumstances beyond my control will 
prevent my attendance, which I very much regret. 

Yours respectfully, 

S. W. HALE. 
FROM GOV. ROBIE OF MAINE. 
State of Maine. Executive Department. 

Augusta, October 7tli, 1884. 
Hon. Charles G. Reed, 

Mayor of the City of Worcester. 

Dear Sir: — 

Please accept my thanks for your kind invitation to be present as 
the guest of your city on so memorable occasion as the Two Hundredth 
Anniversary of the naming of Worcester. I regret exceedingly that official 
engagements at home wiU prevent my accepting the same. 

Yours very respectfully, 

FREDERICK ROBIE. 



LETTERS. 29 

FROM SENATOR DAWES. 

PiTTSFiELD, Mass., October H, 1884. 
Hon. Charles G. Rekd, Mayor. 

A long absence from home prevented your kind invitation reaching 
me till last night. I regret exceedingly that pressing engagements, long 
delayed, will enforce my absence from your distinguished city's most notable 
anniversary. 

H. L. DAWES. 

FROM ANDREW H. GREEN. 

New Youk, October 9th, 1884. 
Hon. Charles G. Reed, Mayor. 

Dear Sir : — 

I was much gratified at the remembrance which has brought to me 
the hospitable invitation of the City of Worcester, to be present at the Two 
Hundredth Anniversary of its naming. 

It is with no light regret that I find that my occup.ations and engagements 
are such as to deprive me of the pleasure of its acceptance. 

I cannot readily reconcile myself to the exigencies that compel me to forego 
participation in a festival, that promises to be so replete with the revival and 
recital of reminiscences of exceeding interest, and so fruitful in hopeful 
anticipations for your city of a continued career of undisturbed prosperity. 

The associations of the occasion will naturally suggest fresh incentives, 
and inspire new resolves, to maintain those high standards of action in public 
afltiirs and in private life, which are the only guarantees for the perpetuation 
of free institutions, the safest guides in all beneficent enterprises and efforts 
for the elevation and advancement of all conditions of men. 

Accept, Mr. Mayor, for yourself and for the gentlemen associated with you 
in the administration of the concerns of your beautiful city, the assurances of 
the cordial interest in the objects of the appointed celebration and the regards 
and congratulations of 

Yours, very respectfully and truly, 

ANDREW H. GREEN. 

FROM J. C. BANCROFT DAVIS. 

Glkncltffe, Garrison's P. O., 

Putnam County, N. Y. 

4 October, 1884. 
To his Honor The Mayor of the City of Worcester. 

Dear Sir: — 

If it were possible for me to accept the kind invitation to be present 
at the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the naming of Worcester I should 
certainly do so. Unfortunately the days named for the celebration are first 



30 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

days of the next term of the Supreme Court, where my duties require me to 
be present. 

I thank yoo sincerely for the invitation and am very sorry that I am 
oblijred to deny myself the pleasure of accepting it. 

With the best wishes for the success of the celebration, 

I am, Mr. Mayor, Very faithfully yours. 

J. C. BANCROFT DAVIS. 



FROM A. McFARLAND DAVIS. 

San Frakcisco, October 6, 1884. 
Hon. Chas. G. Reed, Mayor, &c., &c. 

Dear Sir : — 

I have to acknowledge the receipt of your kind invitation to be 
present as the City's guest at the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the naming 
of Worcester. 

It is with regret that I say in reply that I am compelled to decline the 
invitation. 

Although for many years I have only been able to pay an occasional visit to 
the place of my birth, I have watched with interest its steady growth and 
constant prosperity. It has been to me a source of pride and pleasure to lind 
that the judgment of my mature years fully endorsed the boyish enthusiasm 
with which I was accustomed in my youth to assert my claims to Worcester 
as the place of my nativity. That there may be as many causes for congrat- 
ulation in the past of the citizens of Worcester two hundred years hence as 
exist on the occasion of this anniversary is the best wish that a son of 
Worcester can express in her behalf. 



I remain, Very respectfully yours, 



A. McF. DAVIS. 



FROM GENERAL SHEUIDAN. 
Headquarters Army of the United States. 

Washington, D. C, October 14, 1884. 
Dear Sir : — 

In reply to your kind invitation to attend the Two Hundredth 
Anniversary of the naming of Worcester, October 14th and 15th, as the City's 
guest, I am sorry to have to say that it will be impossible for me to be 
present on the occasion named, on account of previous engagements. 
Thanking you for your kind consideration, believe me, 

Very truly yours, 

P. H. SHERIDAN, Litut. Gen. 
Hon. Chas. G. Reed, Mayor, Worcester, Mass. 



LETTERS. 31 

FROM REV. DR. HUNTINGTON. 

New York, October 13, 1884. 

My Dear Mr. Mayor : — 

As one of the foster-children of Worcester, who has 
never had reason to think of her save as a most kind mother, I beg to express 
the sincere regret I feel at not being able to attend the Commemoration on 
Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. The growth of your (I had almost 
written "our") municipality, unexampled, I suppose in the Eastern States, 
is a signal illustration of what ingenuity and perseverance, not unmixed with 
sturdy honesty, can do in the face of many natural disadvantages and under 
the pressure of formidable rivalry. May those civic virtues which make the 
safety of States keep the foot-hold they have already gained in Worcester for 
twice two hundred years to come. 

With great respect, I remain 

Most truly yours, 

W. R. HUNTINGTON. 
To his Honor CifARLES G. Reed, Mayor of Won^esler. 

FROM BISHOP O'KEILLY. 

Springfiexd, October 11th, 1884. 
Hon. Chares G. Rked. 
Dear Sir : — 

I thank you very much for your courtesy in inviting me to be a 
guest of the City on the second centenary of its baptism. On the 14th inst. 
I am engaged for Confirmation at St. John's (my old home), and, if possible, 
I shall spend some time in afternoon or evening to repay the hospitality of 
the Honored Mayor of a City I love so much. 

With much esteem, 

Yours respectfully, 

P. T. O'REILLY, 

Bp. of Springfield. 

FROM PROF. CHARLES 0. THOMPSON. 

President's Room, 

Terre Haute, Indiana, October 11, 1884. 
My Dear Sir ■■— 

Pray accept my thanks for the invitation to be present at the 
Two Hundredth Anniversary of the naming of Worcester. The name starts 
none but happy thoughts and memories, and I would gladly join my old 



32 BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

neighbors in this celebration were not the distance that separates us 
insuperable. 

It will not be easy to And a town that has more to show for the labor, the 
tldelity, aiul the liope of two centuries. 

Yours very truly, 

CHARLES O. THOMPSON. 
Hon. CiiAS. (J. Heed. 



FROM EX-GOVERNOR CHAMBERLAIN. 

34G BiiOADWAY, New York, October 11, 1884 

Hon. Ciiari.es G. Reed, 

Mayor oj the City of Worcester, Mass. 

Dear Siu : — 

I am greatly honored by your invitation to be present as the guest 
of the City of Worcester on the 14th and 15th insts. — the 200th anniversary of 
the naming of the City of Worcester. 

It is the celebration of a most interesting event, in wliich all who are 
connected with the City or County of Worcester will be glad to join. My 
business will not, however, permit me to be present, and I must therefore 
send my thanks and regrets, with the expression of most ardent hopes for 
the continued growth, prosperity and good fame of the City of Worcester. 

I am, Sir, 

Gratefully and truly, 

D. H. CHAMBERLAIN. 

FROM REV. EDWARD EVERETT HALE. 

39 Highland St., Roxbury, Mass., October 9, 1884. 

My Dear Sir: — 

Much to my regret I find I shall not be able to be at Worcester 
on either of the days of the Aunivor.sary, some previous engagements having 
lapped over into those days. 
With every wish for the prosperity of the city for the next hundred years, 

Believe me, yours truly, 

E. E. HALE. 



LETTERS. 33 

FROM GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. 

ASHFIELD, Mass., October 14th, 1884. 

Dear Sir : — 

I am very much honored by the invitation of the City of Worcester 
to be its guest upon the occasion of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the 
naming of the city, and I sincerely regret that I am unable to accept it. I 
cherish a most filial feeling towards the city upon whose site my ancestor, 
Ephraim Curtis, was the first, or, if Mr. Blake in his late interesting paper 
has rightfully shorn away some of his laurels, certainly the second, settler, 
I am very proud to be descended from one of the founders of a city which 
has been always conspicuous for its devotion to liberty. Its most familiar 
title is its proudest, the Heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 

Very respectfully yours, 

GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. 

The Honorable Chakles G. Rk.kd, Mayor, &c., &c. 

FROM EDWARD S. HOAR. 

Concord, October 8ih. 1884. 
Hon. Charles G. Reed, Mayor. 
Dear Sir : — 

Since receiving your polite invitation, I find that other engage- 
ments render my attendance on your Celebration uncertain and that my 
family and myself were to be the guests of Senator Hoar. You will please, 
therefore, consider me as provided for by my brother's hospitality. 

Very respectfully, 

EDWARD S. HOAR. 

FROM REV. T. W. HIGGINSON. 

Cambridge, Mass., October 10, 1884. 

Hon. Charles G. Reed, 

Mayor of Worcester. 

Dear Sm : — 

I feel much honored by the invitation to be the guest of the City of 
Worcester at the 200th anniversary. Another engagement will prevent me 
fi-om being present on the evening of the 14th, but I hope to present on the 
15th October, although I may be unable to do so. 

Very respectfully yours, 

THOS. WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. 



THE EVENING CELEBRATION. 



Soon after night-fall of Wednesday the general observance 
of the order for illuminating the central portion of the city 
gave a brilliant eflect to the principal streets. 

The meeting at Mechanics Hall was preceded by the 
ringing of Plymouth Chimes for an hour, beginning at 6 
o'clock, and a Concert by the Worcester Brass Band, in front 
of the hall, beginning at 7 o'clock. 

The Bi-Centennial Committee assembled at the Bay State 
House and at the hour appointed escorted the City's guests to 
Mechanics Hall, where the exercises were carried out in 
accordance with the following programme : — 

T H E P R O G R A M M E . 

I. Organ Prelude. 

B. D. Allen. 

II. Loyal Hymn Kucken. 

Double Male Quartette. 

III. Prayer by Rev. C. M. Lamson. 

IV. Address by the Mayor, 

Hon. Ch.\rles G. Reed. 

V. Anniversary Ode ..... John Pierpont. 

Double Male Quartette. 
VI. Oration. 

Hon. George F. Hoar. 

VII. Anniversary Hymn Isaac Watts. 

Double Male Quartette and Audience. 
VIII. Brief Addresses, 

By distinguished guests. 

IX. Music — " Star Spangled Banner," by Worcester Brass Band. 



EVENING CELEBRATION. 35 

Mechanics Hall was handsomely decorated. On the front 
of the gallery opposite the platform were in bold letters the 
names : 

DANIEL GOOKIN. THOMAS PRENTICE. DANIEL HENCHMAN. 

The three settlers named in the original act, 1684, giving the 
name of Worcester to the settlement. The Committee in 
charge of the hall had secured from the High School the 
following pupils who served as ushers : — 

Ch.arles M. Thayer, Merril D. Brigham, Edward Campbell, Paul A. Davis, 
Harrison P. Eddy, James H. Gai'vey, William A. Hickey, Albert H. liiman, 
Sumner A. Kinsley, Walter Phinkett, Artluir D. Putnam, Stanley A Rood, 
James L. Timon, Frank Underwood, George F. Zaeder. 

His Honor Mayor Reed presided, and there were with him 
upon the platform, Hon. George F. Hoar, the orator of the 
evening ; His Excellency Gov. George D. Robinson ; Hon. 
Charles Devens ; Hon. E. R. Hoar ; State Senator E. I. 
Thomas: Rev. C. M. Lamson, chaplain; the members of the 
City Council ; and the following distinguished guests and 
representative citizens : — 



Ex-Mayors Hon. William W. Rice, Hon. Clark Jillson, Hon. Edward L. 
Davis. Hon. Charles B. Pratt. Hon. Frank H. Kelley, Hon. Elijah B. Stoddard, 
Hon. Samuel E. Hildreth ; Messrs. Calvin Foster. J. S. Woodworth, Albert 
Curtis and William T. Merrifleld, members of the first City Council ; Sergeant 
Thomas Plunkett, Hon. George S. Barton, George Crompton, Judge Thomas 
L. Nelson, Stephen Salisbury, William E. Rice, Col. E. J. Russell. Samuel S. 
Green, P. L. Moen, Nathaniel Paine, George B. Witter, F. A. Gaskill, J. Henry 
Hill, Ferd. Giignon, F. P. Goulding, Joseph H. Walker, C. H. Carpenter, Dr. 
W. H. Raymenton, Henry A. Marsh, R. James Tatman, and many others. 
Among the notable people upon the floor were Col. Ivers Phillips, of Boulder, 
Col., and Bonum Nye, of North Brookfield. 



The organ prelude by Mr. B. D. Allen was followed by 
the singing by a Double Male Quartette of Kucken's " Loyal 
Hymn." 



36 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

Rev. C. M. Lamson read a selection from Scripture as 
follows : — 

Matthew, V. 14-16. Ye are the lij;ht of tlie woikl. A city that is set upon 
an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men lisht a candle and put it under a bushel, 
but on a candlesticiv ; and it givetli lijrht to all that are in the house. Let 
your lij;ht so sliine before men, that they may see your good works, and 
glorify your Father which is in heaven. 

PRAYER. 
Rkv. Charles M. Lamson. 

Eternal Father : In these days of grateful and happy memory, may we 
confess Thee, thy boundless wisdom, thine infinite might, thy protecting care. 
Trusting in Thee our Fathers did their work, suffering patiently, warring 
valiantly, that they might leave to us a heritage of truth and life. May we 
remember and imitate their loyalty to God, thai our liberty may be pure, our 
prosperity just, and our work worthy to become a gift to our children. 

Bless thou the city in which we dwell, and it shall be blessed. May it 
remain a city of homes; may all in the spirit of charity labor for its honor 
and through this for its good fortune, that it may become a city with founda- 
tions, whose God is the Lord, to the glory of the great name, Jesus Christ. 
Amen. 

The Mayor as presiding officer delivered the following 
address, after which he read selections from letters received 
by the Committee of Invitation, which are given in full in 
preceding pages. 



MAYOR REED'S ADDRESS. 



Fellow-citizens: — As long ago as 1668, the Com- 
mittee appointed by the Court to view a new plantation 
near Quinsigamond ponds, reported that it contained 
" a tract of very good chestnut tree land, and that there 
may be enough meadow land for a small town of about 
30 familys, and if certain grants of farms were annexed 
it may supply 60 familys." This plantation is now 
called Woi'cester. 

It was first settled in 1674, abandoned during King 
Philip's war in 1675, and re-settled in 1684. Previous 
to October 15th of that year the settlement was called 
Quinsigamon. We date the foundation of our city, as 
a settlement, from the day of its naming by the Court 
of Assistants under petition October 15th, 1684. 

Abandoned again in 1702, during Queen Anne's war, 
it was permanently re-settled in 1713, and was incor- 
porated a Town in 1722, with about 300 inhabitants. 

At the organization of Worcester County in 1731, it 
was made a shire town, and was chartered as a City in 
1848, having 17,000 inhabitants, with a valuation of 
eleven millions. It contains within its limits about 36 
square miles, and at this time it has a valuation of 
nearly fifty-one millions, with about 70,000 inhabitants. 
It is not wealth or numbers alone that constitute the 



38 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

glory of our beloved city. She has taken an active 
part in the great political events of the past, and by her 
public representative men, both native and adopted, has 
done her part in shaping the policy of the State. Her 
citizens have ever been found in the front rank in 
defence of Free Speech, freedom of thought, and liberty 
for the oppressed wherever found; always exerting an 
influence far beyond that indicated by numbers. 

In the stirring events that preceded the Revolution, 
upon the great questions of those early days, Worcester 
took no mean part. In 1774 her representatives at the 
General Court were instructed " to exert themselves to 
see that all officers should depend upon the suffrages of 
the people for their existence as officers." At a conven- 
tion held here in June, 1775, this resolution was passed : 
" That we abhor the enslaving of any of the human 
race, and particularly of the negroes in this country, 
and that whenever there shall be a door opened, or 
opportunity present for anything to be done towards 
the emancipation of the negroes, we will use our influ- 
ence and endeavor that such a thing may be brought 
about." The sentiments expressed in this resolution, 
more than one hundred years ago, have ever been 
those of Worcester, and when, in 1854, the slave-hunter 
visited Worcester, his reception was such that no second 
attempt to return the poor fugitive into slavery was 
ever made. 

In the late great war for the defence of the princi- 
ples of free government and that the whole people 
might be free, our native-born and adopted citizens 



MAYOR'S ADDRESS. 39 

stood shoulder to shoulder, with one mind, one purpose, 
laying down their lives for the equality of all and the 
preservation of the Union. 

Our fathers having made piovision for the church 
and ministry, next set apart land for the maintenance of 
the schools, and the temples of religion and learning 
have taken the place of the wigwam of the Indian. As 
a town, the system of free schools was established and 
encouraged ; hei-e, in the days of his youth, John 
Adams, the second President of the United States, 
taught the grammar school. The system of graded 
schools had its origin in Worcester. 

At the inauguration of the first Mayoi- of this City, 
the Hon. Levi Lincoln, he said: "Let there be no 
neglect, no indifference, no remissness in attention to 
the first of all public objects, the education of the youth 
of this city." The school census shows that at May 
1st, 1884, the whole number of children of the city, five 
to 15 years of age, was 12,884. The number of pupils 
in the public schools was 10,G00 ; number of schools, 
233, with 250 teachers. The City has ever maintained 
a liberal policy in her school system ; we point with 
pride to the educational advantages of Worcester as 
being unsurpassed by those of any city in the Union. 

One of the features of our City is our Free Public 
Library of over (iO,000 volumes, selected with regard to 
the wants of this community, and with no dead wood 
upon its shelves ; so admirably conducted that its 
methods have attracted attention not only in this 
country, but abroad. Under these methods has grown 



40 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

the great use of the library for school purposes. Gen- 
eral Eaton, the United States Commissioner of Educa- 
tion, says of the AYorcester Free Public Library, that 
in our city greater aid is rendered the schools by the 
library than in any other- city in the country. 

The growth of Worcester has been sound and 
healthy. Its business enterprises are under the manage- 
ment of resident owners, intensely loyal to the city. 
The variety of employments are so great that there has 
never been, nor can there be, an entire overthrow of 
business in years of depression. We have a large 
number of adopted citizens, and both native and 
adopted are industrious and frugal, laying aside their 
earnings, until of the entire deposits held in the savings 
banks of the State more than one-fourteenth is held in 
Worcester. 

Worcester has always been rich in cultivated brains, 
i-are mechanical skill and business energy. A city of 
manufactures of great variety ; our leading industries 
are the manufacture of wire, employing 4,000 workmen, 
with an annual product of $8,000,000 ; boots and shoes, 
with 1,.500 workmen and an annual product of nearly 
.$6,000,000 ; woolen interests, with 800 hands, annual 
product over $3,000,000 ; three loom establishments, 
with 800 men, annual product .$2,000,000 ; machinery 
and tools, with 1,500 men, annual product $3,250,000 ; 
musical wares, with 1,000 operatives, annual product 
$1,500,000 ; envelopes, of which 3,000,000 are manu- 
factured daily, at a valuation of $1,000,000 per annum; 
while firearms, corsets, belting, and roller and ice 



MAYOR'S ADDRESS. 41 

skates, together, employ 1,500 operatives, with an 
annual product of over $2,000,000. 

We have prospered because we have made the most 
of otir ojiportunities. Our citizens, both native and 
adopted, have a firm belief in Worcester and its future 
growth and development. We are now the second city 
in the Commonwealth ; what the limit of our population 
is to be no one can foretell. 

Surrounded by beautiful hills and pleasant valleys, 
with a water supply by gravitation from sources that 
are comparatively inexhaustible and of undoubted 
purity, by their location absolutely free from any possi- 
ble present or future defilement by drainage or sewage, 
with a pressure so great that all parts of the city are 
fully protected against the ravages of fire ; with an 
extensive system of sewers now nearly completed ; 
located as we are in the centre of the State, a railroad 
centre with ready communication with all parts of the 
country, with but little more than one hour's ride by 
either of two separate lines to the seaboard, no inland 
city can offer greater inducements to mechanics or 
manufacturers as a location for their business than 
Worcester. With less poverty and misery than any 
city of our size ; with State institutions of great extent 
and importance ; hospitals for the care of the sick 
and injured ; College, Free Institute, Military School, 
Antiquarian, charitable, literary, and scientific institu- 
tions, and societies ; churches of all sects and denomi- 
nations ; this spacious Mechanics Hall, with its national 
reputation as a favorite hall for conventions ; good 

4 



42 BI-CENTENNIAL CELKBRATION. 

streets and roads abounding in beautiful drives ; free 
from malai'ia, a clean, wholesome city ; the result of 
location, frugality and intelligence combined with the 
moral and religious principles planted here by the 
early settlers — we may anticipate a continual increase 
in numbers and prosperity, and in the enjoyment of the 
blessings which good government and free institutions 
alone can give. 



The address of the Ma3'or was followed bj- the singing by 
the Double Male Quartette of John Pierpont's "Anniversary 
Ode." 

Hon. George F. Hoar was then introduced as Orator of the 
Evening, and spoke as follows : — 



' 



MR. hoah's address. 



I am, this evening, but a voice. As we strive to 
clasp the two hands which seem to sti'etch out to us, 
on either side, through the mist, — the hand of our 
ancestry, and the hand of our posterit}^ — I can only 
imperfectly utter what is in the bosoms of all of you. 

The hour is consecrated to simple and common 
emotions; and yet to the emotions which most dignify 
and ennoble human life The imperfect instinct of 
affection for parent and ofispring, which nature has 
given to the brute, is confined to the period of infancy. 
In man, it becomes parental love and filial reverence. 
It is the tie that binds us together in the household. 
It extends beyond the grave, and reaches back to 
remote ancestors. It goes out with unspeakable yearn- 
ing even to the soil where the ashes of those we have 
loved repose. It impels us to seek, with those who are 
our kindred, a companionship, even in death. " Where 
the heart has laid down what it loved most," says the 
greatest of New England orators, "there it is desirous 
of laying itself down. No sculptured marble, no 
enduring monument, no honorable inscription, no ever- 
burning taper that would drive away the darkness of 
the tomb, can soften our sense of the reality of death, 
and hallow to our feelings the ground which is to cover 



44 BI-CKNTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

US, like the consciousness that we shall sleep, dust to 
dust, with the objects of our afFections." But human 
love rises to its highest dignity, and reaches its pro- 
foundest depth of tenderness, when its object is that 
political being to which we give the endearing name of 
country, or the town wliich is our birthj^lace, or the 
city whicli we fondly call our home. There are men in 
this audience whose blood would fly to their cheeks at 
the charge that some little town, where they were born, 
had committed an act of dishonor two hundred years 
ago, as if the imputation were upon one of their own 
kindred to-day. What tones of triumph and joy stir 
the heart like those which celebrate our country's glory? 
What note of sorrow comes down through the ages 
like theirs who wept when they remembered Zion? 

I cannot, with the limits of this address, give in 
detail the history of Worcester for two hundred years. 
That has been done, in part, by an eminent scholar, 
whose family name has been honorably identified with 
this community for more than a century. Our learned 
and famous society, whose early labors attracted the 
attention and interest of Humboldt, which has thrown 
so much light upon the antiquities of the continent, has 
not altogether neglected those specially belonging to 
the locahty of its habitation. A younger association of 
investigators, the Society of Antiquity, will leave no 
field of local interest unexplored. I content myself 
with an estimate of some of the moral forces which 
have determined the history of this community, and 
with considering, briefly, what ground we can find of 



MR. HOAR'S ADDRESS. 45 

rational cheerfulness and hope, in contemplating the 
future. 

After the settlement of a few towns on the coast, in 
the first half of the 17th century, the rich interval of 
the Connecticut attracted the eyes of the planters of 
N'ew England. Midway between the sea and the river, 
the margin of oiu' beautiful lake atforded a convenient 
stopping-place. This lake was well known to the 
Indians by the name Quansigemog — " fishing place for 
pickerel," — Quonosuog was the Indian name for "long- 
nose," or pickerel; and amaug denoted a fishing-place.' 
In 16G7, the General Court appointed a committee to 
"take an exact view," and repoi't "whether the place 
be capable to make a village, and what number of 
families they conceive may be there accommodated." 
The next year the committee return that they have 
viewed the place, that it contains a tract of very good 
chestnut land, and that there may be enough meadow 
for a small plantation, or town of about thirty families; 



II am iierniitteil to aimex the folldwiug letter from the eminent anti(|uary and 
schohir, .1. Ilamniontl Trumbull, Esq., of Hartford, Conn. His authority is the 
highest in the country on all matters rclatinjf to the language of the North American 
Indians, and is decisive of this question: — 

H.4RTFORD, September 2, 1884. 
My Dear Mk. Ho.^R: 

'■ Qu-Jimgamaiif/ Pond" is so named in Mass. Records, iv. (2), 
p. Ill; and as "Quansicam«.'/," same vol., p. 293; •■ Quansicam'^iHj^,"' p. 307; and 
"Quansicamo?!," p. ."Ul,— whence by easy transition came tlie modern form, (iuinsig- 
amnnd. President Stiles, who had a good ear for Indian names, wrote this, in his 
Itinerary, " Quonsigemog." 

Qiniiuisii or (^liiiiiinnS'^ (plural Qunnosuog) was the Indian name for pickerel — 
literallv "long nose:" and -amaiuj flu.al. denotes a 'fishing place.' Qiinnosiiiii/- 
amang is •■ iiickerel lishing-placi'," or " where they tish for picki'rel." 

I have indicated the composition of this name, in my paper on Algonkin place 
names in Coll. Conn. Hist. Society, ii., 18,— though without mention of these early 
forms of the name. 

Very truly yours, 

J. H. TRUMBULL. 



4G BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

that, if certain grants which the Court has made to the 
church of Maiden and others be recalled, and annexed 
to it, it may supply about sixty families. They there- 
fore conceive it expedient that it be reserved for a 
town, and land about eight miles square be laid out in 
the best form the place will bear. 

The General Court adopted these recommendations. 
The committee were authorized to order and manage 
the new plantation. The Indian title was extinguished, 
and honorably paid for. A fort was erected. As early 
as 1678, the work of settlement began with some vigor. 
But Philip's war broke out in 1675. Bvookfield, Men- 
don, Lancaster, and Westborough, were our nearest 
neighbors, the three former being our sole barrier 
against the Indian wilderness. Lancaster and Brook- 
field were utterly destroyed, and Mendon abandoned. 
The planters here deserted their possessions and dis- 
persed among the larger towns. On the 2d of Decem- 
ber, 1675, the Indians destroyed the little village of six 
or seven houses, all that then existed of Quinsigamond 

The war ended with the death of Philip, August iith, 
1676. The broken remnant of the Indians submitted 
to the power of the colony. The proprietors and the 
committee soon renewed their scheme for settlement. 
A meeting of proprietors was had in Cambridge, in 
1678, a sui'vey made in 1683, and an agreement entered 
into April 24, 1684, to regulate the settlement, then 
fairly in progress. 

The General Court, at a session begun October 15th, 
1684, granted the request of the committee, Daniel 



MR. HOAR'S ADDRESS. 47 

Gookin, Daniel Henchman, and Thomas Prentice, that 
their plantation at Quinsigamond be called Worcester.* 
This has been commonly supposed to have been in 
honor of the city of Worcester in England. We might 
well account it an honor to be the namesake of that 
beautiful town upon the Severn, the " civltas in 
hello et in pace fidelis." Mr. Whitmore, in his essay 
on the names of towns, in the Proceedings of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society, for February 11th, 
1873, says there is a tradition that the name was given 
by the committee to commemorate the battle of Worces- 
ter, the " crowning mercy " where Cromwell shattered 
the forces of Charles 2d, and as a defiance to the 
Stuarts. I do not know the source or the antiquity of 
this tradition. But it is not without probability. 
There is no i*eason to think that either of the staunch 
old Puritans who composed the committee, had the 
slightest connection with the city or shire of Worcester. 
Prentice is believed by his descendants to have learned 
the art of war under Cromwell. Gookin was its most 
important member. He may be called the founder of 



iThe limited time allowed for llic prepariition of this address made it necessarily 
extremely imperfect. Uue defect, of which the author is especially sensible, is the 
omission of any mention of Ephraim Curtis. He is entitled to be honored as the first 
settler of Worcester, notwithstaudiug the late discovery that a rude house had been 
built here prior to his settlement. It Is clear that the owner of the house did not 
occupy it. What sort of a house it was, whether it was built for the surveyors, 
or for the committee who inspected the place to determine its fitness for habita- 
tion, or as a shelter for travellers on their way to the Connecticut, does not 
appear. I?ut it is unlikely that any permanent settler would have dwelt there with- 
out leaving some trace of himself in the coteuiporary record. Curtis represented an 
element which has not received full justice from New England history,— the brave 
and adventurous frontiersman. His exploit in saving the besieged garrison of 
Brookfield equals anything Cooper has imagined of the Leatherstocking. 

His descendants, a highly respected family, bearing his name, still dwell on the 
spot where he settled. He was the ancestor, also, of the famous and eloquent orator, 
George William Curtis. 



48 BI-CENTENNTAL CELEBRATION. 

Worcester. He was the major-general of the colony. 
He is, to mo, with the possible exception of John 
Winthrop, the most attractive character in our colonial 
history. His great qualities have never yet received 
their due from historians. He was the companion and 
protector of the regicides Goffe and Whalley, on the 
one hand, and an earnest advocate for justice to the 
Indians on the other. GrofFe and Whalley came over 
in the same ship with him in 1660. While the found- 
ing of Worcester was in progress, they were dwelling 
at Hadley, in a hiding place of which he knew the 
secret. Whalley was own cousin of both Cromwell 
and Hampden. He had beaten Prince Rupert at 
Naseby, and led the horse in the array which compelled 
him to the surrender of Bristol. The loyalists of the 
English Worcester surrendered that city to him in 
16i3. 

Gookin did not live long enough to take up his 
abode here. But his footsteps have been upon our 
fields. He watched over Worcester in its cradle, until 
his death. I hope his statue may some day grace our 
city. He was an old Kentish soldier, and had been the 
personal and highly trusted friend of the great Protec- 
tor, who, 

■•Guided by faith aud matcliles;- fi)itiliidi-. 
To peace and truth his glorious way liad ploughed. 
And on the neck of crowned fortune proud 
Had reared God's trophies, aud liis work pursued. 
While Darwen stream, with blood of Scots imbrued. 
And Dunbar field, resound his praises loud. 

And Worcester's lanreote irrealk." 

The year of which we are speaking was the year of 
the most serious attempt ever made upon the liberties 



MR. HOAR'S ADDRESS. 49 

of Massachusetts. The intelligence of the fraudulent 
judgment in the English chancery, vacating her char- 
ter, reached Boston on the 10th September. This was 
the darkest day in the annals of the Commonwealth. 
Thi.s decree placed under the feet of the Stuarts again 
the liberties which our Fathers had dwelt sixty years in 
the wilderness to maintain. For a good w-hile, in expec- 
tation of this judgment, the heaits of the people had 
been deeply stirred. In January before, In( iea.'<e 
Mather, President of the College, had made a speech in 
lioston town-meeting, against a pi-oposition not to con- 
tend with his Majesty in a course of law, for the defence 
of the charter. " What the Lord our God hath given 
us," said hCj "shall we not possess it ? God forbid, that 
we should give away the inheritance of our Fathers. 
The loyal citizens of London would not surrender theii' 
charter, lest their posterity should curse them for it. 
Shall we do such a thing ? I hope there is not one 
freeman in Boston that can lie guilty of it.'' The 
peoi>le fell into tears, and cried " It is better if we must 
die, to die by the hands of others, than by our own." 
I think "we are well justified in believing that it was the 
memory of the great victory for civil and religious 
liberty which God had vouchsafed to the Puritan over 
Charles Stuart, and not of the loyalty to the throne 
which was the great distinction of the English city, 
that the three stout soldiei's of the committee desired to 
perpetuate. 

The settlement was destined to be broken up again. 
In 1696, a band of hostile Albany or Western Indians 



50 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

penetrated as far as Worcester. When Queen Anne's 
wai- broke out in 1702, the inhabitants again fled. 
Digoiy Sargent, who refused to abandon his dwelling, 
was shiin with liis wife, and his five children carried 
captive to Canada. The town was re-occupicd in 1713, 
which is the date of its permanent settlement. It was 
incorporated as a town, June 14th, 1722. The first 
town meeting was held, September 28th, 1722. It held 
its place among the towns of the Commonwealth, until 
the incorporation of the city, February 29th, 1848. 

Such, fellow-citizens, the birth, and such the baptism, 
of the heroic child. Let us see of what lineage he 
came, what l)lood was in his veins, who stood about 
his cradle, in what gymnasium he was trained, what 
great beliefs he inherited, what creed he was taught, 
what alliances, what friendships he has made ; — that he 
has been able to take his place among giants ; to be a 
leader, and a companion of leaders, in great victories in 
wai', and greater victories in peace ; that his fields and 
gardens, to-day, are teeming with fruit, and corn, and 
flowers ; that the labor of the whole world, two hundred 
years ago, could not create, its fancy could scarce con- 
ceive, this single day's product of his factories and 
workshops. "The Lord found him in a desert land, 
and in the waste howling wilderness ; he led him about, 
he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye ; 
he made him ride on the high places of the earth, that 
he might eat the increase of the fields." 

The first settlers were of pure English blood. They 
had inherited the Norseman's hunger for adventure, 



■ t 



MR. HOAR'S ADDRESS. 51 

which found satisfaction in forest and in sea, and the 
Saxon love of local self-government, which resulted in 
the institution of the town. 

Except Holland and Switzerland, which together 
contained, at tliat time, I suppose, a population scarcely 
greater than that of Massachusetts to-daj-, there was 
no spot on earth, except England, whose government 
was free, or recognized any popular rights. 

In England, the long battle seemed going against 
liberty. The great company that had surrounded Crom- 
well were dead, or in hiding, or in exile. Puritanism 
seemed to have spent itself as a force in England, and 
had crossed the sea. But the love of liberty, not a 
mere fi-eedom from restraint, but a liberty secured and 
guarded by permanent institutions, was the master 
passion of the English race. The first half of the 
seventeenth century, which was the period of New 
England colonization, was the time when the thoughts 
of the whole English people had been turned to a 
discussion of the principles of government. The intel- 
lectual activity, which in the time of Elizabeth, which 
preceded, and that of Anne which followed, produced a 
literature never equalled but in Athens, found occupa- 
tion in dealing with the great questions which lie at the 
foundation of states. The men who came here, there- 
foi-e, were ready for the framing of constitutions and 
statutes. The simple and perfect mechanism of town 
and parish was as natural to them as the building its 
nest to a bird. 

But the liberty which our Fathers brought with them 



52 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBKATION. 

from England differed in one essential particular from 
that which they left behind. In England, that love had 
been, in the main, a purely selfish passion. The Eng- 
lishman had demanded freedom as a privilege for 
himself, or his class. The contest for political or civil 
rights had been always a strife of classes. At one 
time, it was the crown against the nobles. At another, 
it was the nobles against the crown. At another, it 
was Becket, the churchman of humble origin and 
popular sympathies, against king and noble. It is, I 
believe, true that no class in England ever got its right 
from the sense of justice of any other. Her freedom, 
as it broadened slowly down, has ever been wrung by 
violence oi- threats from the feai-s of her rulers. With 
all her great qualities, she has had a limited and insular 
moral law. She has ever been a tyi'ant and a ruffian in 
her dealings with weaker nations. This trait has not 
wholly failed to manifest itself in her descendants here. 
We have not seemed to be quite able to get the Eng- 
lishman out of our blood. Our moral sense sometimes 
fails when we come to deal with other races or humbler 
classes than our own. But the i-eligion of the Puritan 
was one which he believed was a rule for his conduct 
in the things which pertained to this life, as well as 
that beyond. He brought to the government of the 
state the austere sense of religious and moral obliga- 
tion. Howevei" he may have sometimes failed in the 
application of the prhiciple, justice was to him not only 
a right of his own, but a duty to others. The condi- 
tions of his existence, the necessity of the constant 



MR. HOAR'S ADDRESS. 53 

labor of every man in clearing the wilderness, made 
class distinctions impossible. The contest between 
these two spii-its, which we ai'e wont to term the 
Cavalier and the Puritan, has played a great jiart in 
our national and local history. It is by no means yet 
over. But the Puritan spirit and faith, which founded 
Worcester two hundred years ago, have, in the main 
controlled the currents of her history. 

But let us, in all this, be just to England. We have 
this treasure in earthen vessels. Whatevei- cause of 
complaint we have of her, let us not forget, that the 
only plant of liberty, that, in modern times, has lived, 
and gi"Own, and taken root, has come from her. Cruel 
nurse though she was, our Fathers drew fi'om her 
bosom the courage with which they resisted her. 

Strong motlier of a Lion-line, 
Be proud of those strong sons of tliinc. 
Who wrencliecl tlicir rights from thee. 

What wonder, if, in noble heat. 

Those men thine arms withstood, 
Retaught the le.sson thou hadst taught, 
And in thy spirit with thee fought, 

Who sprang from English hlood. 

Whatever harmonies of law 

The growing world assume. 
Thy worli is thine — The single note. 
From that deep chord whieh Hampden smote, 

Will vibrate to the doom. 

As I just said, the condition of existence in the 
wilderness and the need of constant and strenuous 
personal exertion made class distinctions impossible. 
The Puritan's faith, which was based on reverence 
for the individual soul, taught a doctrine of equality, 
which his situation rendered it easy to accept in prac- 



54 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

tice. This condition also begat another sentiment, or 
lather, another principle, which has been preserved in 
undiminished vigor to our own day, and which has done 
much to give direction to our history. That is the 
principle which honors labor. This community has 
never respected an idler, whether he were rich or poor. 
The capacity to labor was the chief and most valued 
possession of our ancestors : and the disposition to labor 
took a high rank among the virtues. 

From the reverence for the individual soul, and the 
doctrine of equality which was its offspi-ing, came, 
naturally, the institutions of education, and the laws 
regulating the descent and disposition of property. 
The doctrine was early announced that the whole prop- 
erty of the state is bound to educate all the children of 
the state ; and it is as firmly settled as any constitu- 
tional principle whatever. 

Human nature has its course here as elsewhere. 
With the increase of wealth and the holding of neces- 
sary public office there grew up, before the Revolution, 
a sort of gentry, for whom the manners and opinions 
of their class in England had some attraction. Copley's 
pictures and family tradition shew some tendency to 
luxury in dress and manners. But the plain fashions 
and simple manners of a frontier agricultural people 
prevailed in Worcester as elsewhere. The upper class 
was easily entered and easily left. 

IsText in importance to the provision for universal 
education was the policy of the law which constantly 
favored the division and subdivision of estates. The 






MR. HOAR'S ADDRESS. 55 

slight preference given to the eldest son, the only 
remnant of that doctrine of primogeniture which lies at 
the foundation of the institutions of England, was soon 
abolished. Estates were divided equally among sons 
and daughters. All property was made liable for debt. 
A simple form of conveyance was devised. Long 
trusts and entails were almost unknown ; and as soon 
as they began to be known legal methods were devised 
to avoid them. 

It was also the good fortune of this community that it 
belonged to a commonwealth composed of a people like 
itself. It was not, as Ireland to England, tied to an alien 
government and an alien i-ace ; so that its own great 
qualities had full opportunity for free and fair growth. 

Such were the birth and origin of our city. Such 
were the influences that surrounded its cradle. Such 
was the faith instilled into its childhood. We find 
Worcester purchased of the Indians, permanently 
settled, its name a monument to a great victory for 
civil and religious freedom, peopled by men who feai'ed 
God, who loved liberty, who honored labor, who 
inherited a passion for adventure, on the one hand, 
and the sober, restrained habit of self-government, on 
the other, to whom education and justice were the 
prime necessities of life, and in whose eyes every 
human soul was the equal of every other, before God 
and man. Let us next see its growth ; — in what 
school, in what gymnasium, it was trained and exer- 
cised, till it reached the full measure of a robust and 
vigorous manhood. 



^G BICENTENNIAL CELEBKATION. 

Of course, the religious and moral influences of which 
r have spoken, which surrounded Worcester, at its 
foundation, continued in operation. I find, in addition, 
four principal influences which determined the character 
of this people for the next one hundred and fifty j^ears. 

These were: — Its occupation; The education and 
discipline of political duties ; — The century-long 
struggle with England ; — Its military history. 

For more than a century, the occupation of this 
community was chiefly clearing and tilling the soil. I 
could state nothing not familiar to my audience, if I 
should attempt to describe the farming of the first 
century after the settlement, with its rude and clumsy 
implements, or contrast it with the cultivation of our 
fields to-day with the aid of modern science, machinery, 
and docile and improved breeds of cattle and hoi-ses; or 
with those wonderful western farms, which have made of 
the American farmer a merchant, whose competitor is 
on the Ganges and the Bosjihorus. But no human 
occupation more tends to bring out the sterling mental 
and moral qualities than that of the farmer in a new 
country. There 'were but 734 persons, of our population 
of 58,291, engaged in agriculture in AVoi'cester in 1880. 
I shall not, therefore, be suspected of a desire to flatter, 
when I afiirm, as the result of a large experience, the 
superiority of the agricultural class over any other, 
taken as a whole, in capacity for the duties of citizen- 
ship, whether as voters, jurors, or legislators. In our 
climate, the life of the early farmer required the constant 
exercise of patience, observation of natural laws, endur- 



MR. HOAR'S ADDRESS. 57 

ance, industry. Ownership of the soil brings with it 
the habit of command, and of self-respect. The New 
England farmer has ever combined a character cautious, 
slow, conservative in the ordinaiy concerns of life, with 
an unmatched rapidity of decision and promptness of 
action in great emergencies. 

The resjjonsibilities of citizenship also, elevated and 
ennobled the men on whose shoulders they rested. The 
townsmen had to deal with, understand, debate, and 
decide the highest qnestions of State. At least four 
times since the first settlement — in the Pequot War, 
King Charles' attempt on the charter, the Revolution, 
the Rebellion — has the very life of the State been 
depending. The Constitution of the United States was 
to be adopted or rejected. Four times within a single 
century, the wdiole principle and framework of the 
State Constitution were under discussion. When the 
Government got under way, our relations with England, 
with France, and later with Mexico, the annexation of 
Louisiana and Texas, the wars of 1812 and 1845, the 
extension of our dominion over California, the abolition 
of slavery, reconstruction, the establishment and pro- 
tection of American manufacture, the subtleties of 
finance and currency, — upon all these, beside the man- 
agement of the affairs of the Commonwealth and the 
town, the individual freeman must recoi'd his vote. To 
understand and help settle these questions was itself a 
liberal education. 

But to contend with forest, with sterile soil, and 

inhospitable climate was not enough. A race of boors 
5 



58 BI-OESTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

might have done that, and remained a race of boors 
still. In common with the people of the rest of the little 
Commonwealth the century-long struggle with England 
had its great influence on the character of the dwellers 
in Worcester. Many of them must have well known in 
youth the first settlers of Plymouth and Massachusetts 
who came over between 1620 and 1640. As we are 
reminded by a great New England scholar, there were 
not ten years together, from the landing at Plj^mouth 
to the sun-ender at Yorktown, "when some great and 
sacred right of our Fathers was not assailed or menaced 
by the government of England, in one fomn or another." 
The danger from that mighty power, to the liberty he 
or his fathers had come into the wilderness to secure, 
was scarcely ever out of the mind of the New England 
freeman, as he sat in his dwelling, or ploughed his field, 
or took council with his fellows. He was perpetually 
meditating on the means of securing it, ready to defend 
it in argument, oi", if need be, to die for it. Constant 
meditation of such a theme ga\e him dignity and 
loftiness of character and bearing, and brought him to 
see with absolute clearness the true boundary which 
separates liberty and authority in a State. Hence came 
to our ancestors that most valuable of great qualities 
which make the temper of a great race — constancy. It 
is a quality woith to a people more than literature, or 
art, or wealth, or peace. They learned to keep before 
them a great and noble public object through years, 
through generations, through centuries. They never 
were turned aside from it by what was personal, or 



I 



-I 



MR. HOARS ADDRESS. 59 

petty, or tempoi-ary. May God grant that no eiferai- 
nacy of riches, that no sickly or selfish culture may 
destroy it in the hearts of their descendants. 

This sketch would be incomi^lete, without speaking 
of one other educating force. 

The civic achievements of this people have been 
such that we have not been accustomed to speak of them 
as a warlike people. Yet the history of Massachusetts 
has been, in large degree, a military history. In every 
generation, but one, she has gone through a war which 
has tried to the utmost her courage, endurance, and 
resources. Yet the passion for military glory has 
never been characteristic of our people. American 
histoi-y has ever most delighted to dwell on the civic 
virtues of our military heroes. There can be no 
greater test, or greater educator, of heroic quality in 
a people than the burden of a righteous war, appeal- 
ing to moral and patriotic sentiments, carried through 
with unflinching constancy to final ti'iumph. 

Lord Chatham told the House of Lords in 1777, — 
" America has carried you through four wars, and will 
now carry you to your death. I venture to tell your 
Lordships that the American gentry will make ofiicers 
fit to command the ti-oops of all the European powers." 
" It is not in Indian wars," said Fisher Ames, " that 
heroes are celebrated ; but it is there they are formed." 
There were scarcely ten years together, from the first 
settlement, till the conquest of Canada in the war which 
ended in 1763, when a Worcester farmer was safe 
in his dwelling, by reason of the danger from French 



60 BI-CENTENXIAL CELEBRATION. 

or Indian. His life was spent under arms. Wor- 
cester had her full quota in the four New England 
regiments which captured Louisburgh from the vet- 
erans of France. Fi-om a population of 1400, she sent 
more than five hundred men into the campaigns of the 
ten years which ended in 1756. She had her full share 
of danger and glory in the desperate strife of eiglity 
years, until, at Quebec, the lilies went down before 
the lion, never again, but for a brief period in Louisi- 
ana, to float as an emblem of dominion, ovei" any part 
of the continent of North America. Whatever share 
others may have taken, the glory of that contest is the 
glory of Massachusetts ; that victory is a Massachu- 
setts victory. 

The strife with France over, the struggle for con- 
stitutional liberty with England blazed up with in- 
creased heat. The peace of 17G3 was succeeded by 
twelve years of hollow and treacherous truce. The 
people of Worcester knew well on what ground they 
stood. The great debate was conducted at every fire- 
side. Says an illustrious American historian, native 
of Worcester, to whom she sends salutation on her 
birthday, "one spirit moved through them all. They 
debated the great question of resistance, as though God 
were hearkening: and they took counsel i-everently 
with their ministers, and the aged, and the pious, and 
the brave, in their villages. The shire of Worcester in 
August ( 1774) set the example of a county congress, 
which disclaimed the jurisdiction of the British house 
of commons, asserted the exclusive right of the col- 



ME. HOAR'S ADDRESS. 61 

onies to originate laws respecting themselves, rested 
their duty of allegiance on the charter of the province, 
and declared the violation of that charter a dissolution 
of their union with Britain." Gage sent his spies here. 
It was rumored in August, 1774, that he meditated 
sending part of his army to execute the regulating act, 
which forbid town meetings except by the written leave 
of the governor. The people of Worcester purchased 
and manufactured arms, cast musket-balls, provided 
powder, and threatened openly to fall upon any body 
of soldiers who should attack them. 

When the war of the Revolution came it found 
Worcester ready. Timothy Bigelow, whom our late 
eloquent and beloved fellow-citizen. Judge Thomas — 
would he were living, and in this place to-night — de- 
scribes as "the village blacksmith, sagacious states- 
man, prudent and gallant commander, devoted patriot, 
chevalier of nature, whose chivalry was illustrated in 
breaking and not in forging the chains of human 
bondage" led the best disciplined regiment in the 
revolutionary army, a regiment of Worcester men, 
bearing a name covered with glory in two wars 
— the 15th Massachusetts. 

The war of 1812 unfortunately divided the opinion of 
the people of Massachusetts as they were inclined to sym- 
pathize with England or France in the gi'eat struggle 
which rent Europe in sunder. The Federalist looked 
upon England as the sole defense of mankind against 
the ambition of Napoleon. He regarded the power of 
France with a dread, which we cannot realize, even 



62 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

when we read the wonderful eloquence of Fisher Ames. 
But the final judgment of history must be, that the 
war of 1812 was a righteous and a glorious war. We 
were compelled to it by the impudent British pi-eten- 
sion to search American vessels on the high seas, and 
take from them every man whom a midshipman should 
suspect, or pretend to suspect, of being a British 
subject. We began the wai- after England had crushed 
the navy of every other power that had contended 
with her by sea — Holland, Spain, Denmark, France. 
" We encountered England ship to ship, with a chiv- 
alry, with a perfection of discipline, with a constant 
superiority in gunnery, and with a success utterly with- 
out example by any other nation in the world." This 
is fully admitted by Maj. Gen. Sir Howard Douglass, 
in his " Treatise on IS^aval Gunnery," a book of high 
authority, published with the approbation of the Lords 
Commissioners of the admiralty in England. It is true, 
we made peace without a formal relinquishment by 
Great Britain of the obnoxious pretension. But it is 
also true that it never was heard of again. " The nation 
issued from the war " said John Quincy Adams, " with 
all its rights and liberties unimpaired, preserved as 
well from the artifices of diplomacy, as from the force 
of preponderating power upon their element, the seas." 
The Duke of Wellington, when urged by the cabinet, 
after the downfall of Napoleon, to take command in 
America, replies in a letter to Lord Liverpool of Nov. 
9, 1814, which I have not seen cited by American his- 
torians, in which he substantially admits the same thing. 



MR. HOAR'S ADDRESS. 63 

He says "I do not promise to myself much success 
there. If we cannot obtain a naval superiority on the 
lakes, I shall go only to sign a peace which might as 
well be signed now. You have no right, from the state 
of the war, to demand any concession of territory from 
America." In her contributions, sacrifices, and achieve- 
ments, in this war, Massachusetts may well challenge 
comparison with any other A merican state. One of her 
towns, when the war ended, had five hundred men in 
Dartmoor prison. An accomplished investigator, Col. 
Higginson, has well remarked "As a matter of fact, the 
Federalists did their duty in action; the Commonwealth 
of Massachusetts furnished during those three years 
more soldiers than any other; and the New England 
states, which opposed the war, sent more men into the 
field than the Southern states, which brought on the 
contest. Unfortunately the world remembers words 
better than actions — litera scripta manet, — and the few 
qiiestionable phrases of the Ilaitford Convention are 
now better remembered than the 14,000 men which 
Massachusetts raised in 1814, or the two millions of 
dollars she paid for bounties." 

But in speaking of the forces which have educated 
this people, what shall we say of them, but for whom 
this day would have been a day of sorrow and humil- 
iation? The population of Worcester in 1860 was a 
little less than 25,000. She gave to the war for the 
Union the service of more than 3000 men, one in 
every eight of her population. "They shared," says 
the brilliant orator whose voice you miss this evening. 



(l4 BI-CENTENXr.VL CELKBR.VTTON. 

"in the shifting lot of the army of the Potomac, from 
its clouded morning to its brilliant close ; in the maix-h- 
ings and fightings of the Shenandoah, till every open 
field and copse became familiar ground : in the early 
welcome victories of Cai-olina : in patient trials along 
the gulf; in the hours of turning fortune at New 
Orleans, Port Hudson, and Vicksburg ; in the tangled 
marches and counter-marches of Tennessee ; in every 
part of the country, in every great campaign, not 
excepting the Napoleonic excursion of Sherman to the 
sea." There is not a record of dishonor in their story. 
For courage, for endurance, for discipline, for intelli- 
gence, the soldiers of Worcester, by the official testi- 
mony of their great commanders, and concurrent witness 
of all authorities, were unsurpassed. We would arro- 
gate to our soldiers no superiority over those of other 
American communities. Other states, other cities, have 
their heroes ; but these are ours. If I give but this 
brief allusion to those, whose deeds constitute the 
proudest chapter in our history, it is because I know 
that the theme has been so fully treated elsewhere, 
and because I fondly hope that in coming ages, it 
will be the topic of many a centennial. For the great 
battle-fields, where Union and Liberty were secured by 
the courage of her sons, the whole two hundred years 
of Worcester had been but one long drill. Plato 
declared that the soldiers of Marathon, and the sailors 
of Salamis became the school-masters of Hellas. 
Citizen soldiers ! Of the whole culture of the past, 
consummate flower and crown ! You shall also be our 



MR. HOAR'S ADDRESS. 65 

chiefest educators and example for the future. You 
have not only saved your country, but j'ou have 
determined the character, for ages, of the country you 
have saved. To be an Amei-ican, henceforth, is to be 
such as you have been. 

Sixty years ago, Worcester, was still an agricultural 
town. As the county seat, she had become a centre 
of trade. Yet in 1820, of a population of 2,900, thei-e 
were but 126 persons returned as employed in manufac- 
ture. Lincoln, in his history of the town down to ISoO, 
devotes more space to the matter of mines and mineral 
resources, than to manufacture. To-day, upon the 
spot which, its planters thought, might supply thirty, 
or peradventure, sixty families, seventy thousand people 
dwell in freedom and in honor. The sun, as it rises 
on their second centennial, sees them owners of a 
wealth of more than fifty millions ; (a hundred years 
ago, the entire valuation of Massachusetts, including 
Maine, was eleven millions), paying at least eight 
millions each year in wages ; converting a material of 
twenty millions into a product of thirty-five millions, 
thus creating yearly, a value of fifteen millions ; their 
workmen very largely owning their homes ; their city 
the centre of a populous county, the spot on the earth's 
surface where labor receives the largest share of its 
product ; a city without palaces, and without hovels; 
without an aristocracy, and without a serf ; adorned by 
famous schools, the creation of private enterprise or 
munificence ; providing ample means of education at 
the public charge for all its ehildi-en ; its fifty churches 



66 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

dwelling side by side in charity ; its name known and 
honored, and its influence felt to the farthest borders of 
the continent ; its simple self-government a model of 
honest, frugal, humane, efficient administration. 

It remains for me briefly to allude to the influences 
which have transfoi-med the pleasant rural town of fifty 
years ago into the great and wealthy city. There are 
two which in our history have had a close connection 
with each other ; — the development of our manufacture 
by the great inventive genius and manufacturing skill 
of our people ; and the accession to our population of 
our Irish brethren. 

Worcester was the county seat. That fact made her 
a centre of trade, and caused professional men and 
county officers to make their residence here. A popu- 
lation full of energy, public spirit and wealth gathered 
here. The excellence of the land, equalled by few 
towns in the county, contributed to the same result. 
These beautiful rolling hills, green and fertile to the 
top, were especially attractive for habitation. Our 
noble forests abounded in oak, chestnut and pine. The 
maple gave to the landscape its autumn splendors. 
The elm which, in England, they call " the weed of 
Worcester," lends us, also, its stately ornament. 
Worcester was on a princijial high road from Boston 
to the West. It was natural, therefore, that when the 
capitalists of Providence carried out their scheme of 
inland navigation in 1828, Worcester should be the 
terminus of the Blackstone Canal ; and when Boston, 
inspired by the wisdom and energy of Nathan Hale, — a 



MR. HOAR'S ADDRESS. 67 

name Worcester has double reason to honor, — begun in 
1835, the great raih-oad system which connects her with 
the West, Worcester should have been the first point at 
which she aimed. The town, though scantily supplied 
with water power, got a fair start of its competitoi'S. 
Its manufacturing industries were planted, and ready to 
grow, under the fostering care of the tarifl' of 1842. 

Other railroads, leading north, south and west, were 
soon added and preserved her advantage. 

How often, in ^ew England history, is the lesson 
repeated, that, from seeming disadvantages, an ener- 
getic people reap their greatest benefit. It was our 
great good fortune that we had no considerable water 
power. If we had had it, there would inevitably have 
grown up here great manufactures of textile fabrics, 
carried on in great establishments by giant corpora- 
tions. Worcester would have been owned largely by 
absentees. Instead of a community of skilled and 
intelligent mechanics, managing and directing their 
own concerns, rendered by the variety of their occupa- 
tion, to a great degree, independent of the changes of 
business, we .should have had a population working for 
lower and fluctuating wages, its prosperity rising and 
falling with the chances of the times. 

The mechanic arts, as Blackstone says of the 
sciences, are of a sociable disposition, and flourish best in 
the neighborhood of each other. Every new workshop 
was an attraction to others. The momentum given to 
our industries in the beginning by our railroad advan- 
tages has never ceased its operation. 



68 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

This neighborhood is the native region of inventive 
genius, A delightful story is told by Whitney of a 
Worcester County captive in Queen Anne's war, in 
1705, who was taken by the Indians to Montreal, and 
who saved himself and two companions from torture 
and death, and earned their deliverance fi'om captiAaty, 
by building a sawmill on the River Chamblee, there 
being no sawmill in all Canada, and no artisan able to 
build one; — a story which finds its only parallel in 
that of the Athenian captives in the expedition to 
Syracuse, who earned their deliverance by reciting 
the verses of Euripides. 

Within the towns whose ancient borders touched our 
own were born the inventors of the cotton gin, of the 
carpet loom, of the machine for turning irregular 
forms, and of the sewing machine. The first of these 
doubled the value of every acre of cotton-jiroducing 
land in America. The last has been, doubtless, an 
equal benefit to mankind. 

Within our own borders were invented or perfected 
the wonderful mechanism for the making of wire, the 
wrench, the loom, the envelope machine, many imple- 
ments of agriculture, including the modern plough, 
and many other useful machines of the highest value to 
mankind. The detail of these wonderful acliievements 
will be given to the public by your historical committee. 
It would be easy to show that many great states, many 
populous nations, have, in centuries of life, produced 
far less for the welfare and happiness of mankind than 



MK. HOAR'S ADDRESS. 69 

this people in one half-century. What cycle of Cathay 
is equal to the fifty years of Worcester ? 

Our Fathers thought it not unfitting to insert in the 
Constitution itself, the injunction upon their descend- 
ants, "especially to cherish the University at Cam- 
bridge." It is not unbecoming this occasion, to urge 
upon the people of this city, now and in all coming 
time, to foster their Technical School, devoted to that 
modern education, which makes science the handmaid 
of mechanic art. By this supremacy AVorcester must 
henceforth live, or bear no life. 

T must not pass by another impoitant factor in our 
history, whose influence has been already very great, 
and must be largely taken into account, in our anticipa- 
tion of the future. I mean the immigration, within the 
last half-centur}', of our brethren of foreign biith, 
especially of the Irish race. Mr. Webster, at Plymouth, 
in 1820, said, with a just pride, that in the villages and 
farmhouses of Xew England, there was still undisturbed 
sleep, within unbarred doors. New England, and 
America, so far as it has obeyed hei- teaching, has ever 
kept her doors unbaned. The great immigration, 
which began about 1830, has enriched Woi-cester with 
its abundant tide. Of our whole population in 1880, 
of 58,291 there were of foreign birth 15,624. Of this 
number the principal ingredients were contributed as 
follows : 

Ireland, 9,329 Sweden. 818 

British America, 3,220 German Empire, 370 

England, 1,207 



70 Bl-CENTBNNIAL CELEBRATION. 

The number of persons having one parent or both of 
foreign birth was 82,804. 

Allowing for the very large number of the grand- 
children of emigrants, it seems reasonably certain, that, 
of our present population of 70,000, quite thirty thou- 
sand are of Irish descent. To many good men this has 
been a source of alarm. But to me, much meditating on 
this theme, considering it in those large and permanent 
relations which belong to an occasion like this, it seems 
cause for unmixed gratitude to God, both for what it 
has done for us in the past, and for what we may 
hope from it in the future. Say nothing now of the 
benefit we have been able to confer on them. Leave 
out of view the blessing of Justice, Freedom, Employ- 
ment, Self-government, Education, to those who have 
withdrawn their necks from under the heel of Eng- 
land, a boon which a humane and generous people 
would strain and peril their own institutions to the 
utmost to confer. Think of what this race has done 
for us. 

Without the foreign immigration to this country the 
building of our railroads would have been impracticable, 
or must have been delayed for a generation. That, in 
its turn, would have postponed the settlement of the 
West, would have made the suppression of the rebellion 
impossible, and would have prevented the creation of 
that western market, and access to that western 
agriculture, which, in their turn, have created, supported 
and fed the manufacturing communities of the East. 
Worcester owes its growth, its wealth, its manufac- 



MR. HOARS ADDRESS. 71 

turing supremacy, to that railroad system, wliich these 
men crossed the Athiiitic to build for us. 

The English and the Irish race meet in America as 
mutual benefactors. They meet, also, as equals. The 
problem of their perfect union is to be wrought out 
here, on a new field, where equal justice prevails, whei'e 
there is no lord, and no serf. 

We dwell, with an honest pride, on the great qualities 
of our own ancestors. We hope to transmit them to 
oui children. In that mighty national life, drawn from 
so many sources ; of many, one ; of many states, one 
nation ; of many races, one people ; of many creeds, 
one faith ; the elements the Puritan has contributed, — 
his courage ; his constancy ; his belief in God ; his 
reverence for law ; his love of libeit}^ ; his serene and 
lofty hope — will be elements of perpetual power. 

But see what the Irishman brings, also, as a dowry 
to this marriage which the centuries are to weld. 

The Irish race is conspicuous among great races for 
great traits. No people that possessed them ever 
failed to achieve a high rank among nations, on a fair 
field. These are : — the capacity to produce great 
men undei" the most adverse conditions ; the capacity 
for rapid elevation, when conditions are favorable ; 
courage ; soldierly qualities ; the gift of eloquence ; 
the power of severe and patient labor ; the passion for 
owning land ; strong domestic afi'ection ; chastity ; 
deep religious feeling. 

The most English of English historians has drawn a 
picture of England's rule over Ireland, whose dark and 



72 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

terrible shadows no other hand can deepen. — Six 
hundi-ed and fifty years of the most terrible form of 
tyranny, that of a race by a race ; government by 
bayonet, artillery and intrenched camp ; the greatest 
English champions of civil and spiritual liberty denying 
even toleration to Ireland ; whatever is associated with 
deliverance and dignity to the Englishman associated 
with bondage and ruin to the Irishman ; of the two 
greatest English sovereigns, — Cromwell and William, 
— the Irish policy of one, extirpation, of the other, 
degradation ; the most odious laws aggravated by more 
odious administration ; pi-iests, revered by millions as 
the only authorized expositors of Christian truth, and 
the only authorized dispensers of the Christian sacra- 
ments, treated as no decent man would treat the vilest 
beggar ; — These are Lord Macaulay's touches. His 
authority needs no confirmation.' If it did, it would be 
easy to multiply English witnesses, and to show that 
this state of things continued, without substantial 
impi'ovement, down to the time when the great emigra- 

iTliat there may be uo suspicion of exaggeration, tlie following extract is annexed 
from Lord IMacaulay'.s speech on tlie state of Ireland, delivered in the House of 
Commons, February li)tb, l!S44. See also the treatise on Land Tenure in Ireland, 
in Systems of Land Tenure ui various countries, published by the (obden Club, and 
reprinted at the request of Mr. Gladstone. 

" Misgovernment," says Lord Macaulay, " lasting from the reign of Henry the 2d to 
the reign of William thi- fth"' (that is for six luiudred and tifty year>), " has left an 
immense mass of dixcmtcnt. You govern that island, not by means of tin- respect 
wliieh the people feel for the laws, but by means of bayonets, artilK'ry, ami intrenched 
corps. The primary I'ause is, no doubt, the manner in which Ireland became subject 
to the Eiiglisli crown. The annexation was effected by compiest, and by conquest of 
a peculiar kind. It was a conquest of a race by a race. Of all forms of tyranny, I 
believe that the worst is that of a nation over a nation. No enmity that ever existed 
between pojiulations separated by seas and mountain ridges approaches in bitterness 
the nnitual inmity felt by populations locally intermingled, but never moially and 
politically amalgaiiiated; and such were the linglishry and the Irishry. 'I'he spirit 
of liberty in England was closely allied with the spirit of ruiitauism. aud was 
mortally hostile to the Papacy. Such men as Hampden, Vane, Jlilton. Locke, though 
zealousgenerally for civil arid spiritual freedom, yet held that the Roman Catholic 
worship had no claim to toleration. The watchwords, the badges, the names, the 
places, the davs, which in the mind of an Englishman were associatcil with deliverance, 



MR. HOAR'S ADDRESS. 73 

tion from Ireland was at its height. Yet what eight 
millions of men on earth produced more great men than 
Ireland during the last half of the last century ? Swift, 
and Goldsmith, and Burke, and Sheridan, each the 
foremost name in a great department in English litera- 
ture ; Wellington, the first soldier of his time, were 
Ii-ishmen. It may be said, that they belonged to the 
dominant race. But take the men whom Ireland claims 
as her own, all on the stage within a period of fifty 
years, — Emmet, 

The noblest star of Fame, 
That e'er in life's young glory sat! 

Grattan, whose genius gave Ireland her brief taste of 
national life. — 

That one lucid interval, snatched from the gloom, 
And the madness of ages, when, filled with his soul, 

A nation o'erleaped the darli bounds of her doom. 
And for one sacred instant, touched Liberty's goal ; 



prosijenty, natiouid dijruity, were, in the mind of an Irishman, associated witli bond- 
age, rum, and desradalion. Twice, during the .seventeenth century, the Irish rose up 
agamst the English colony. Twice thev were completelv |iut down. The first 
rebelhon was crushed by Oliver Cromwell; the second bv William the Third. Tlie 
policy of Cromwell was wise, and strong, and strai^'litforward, and cruel. It was 
comprised in one word. That word was e.rHrpation. The policy of William was 
less able, less energetic, and, though more humane in seeming, perhaps not more 
humane in reality. Extirpation was not attempted. The Irish Roman Catholics 
were permitted to live, to be fruitful, to replenish the earth; but they were doomed 
to be what the Helots were in Sparta, what the (Jreeks were under the Ottoman. 
Every man of the subject caste was strictly excluded from public trust. Take what 
path he might in life, lie was crossed at every step bv some vexatious restriction. It 
was only by being obscure and inactive, that he could, on his native soil, be safe. If 
he aspired to be powerful and honored, lie must begin by being an exile. At home 
be was a mere Gibeonite. a hewer of wood and drawer of water. The statute book 
of Ireland was filled with enactments which furnish to the Roman Catholics but too 
good a ground for recriminating on us, when we talk of the barbarities of Bonner 
and Gardner; and tlie harshness of those odious laws was aggravated by a more 
odious administration. For, bad as the legislators were, the magistrates were worse 
still. Courts of law and juries existed onlv for the benefit of the dominant sect. 
Those priests who were revered bv millions as their natural advisers and guardians, 
as the only authorized expositors of Christian truth, as the only authorized dispensers 
of the Christian sacraments, were treated bv the squires and squireens of the ruling 
faction as no good-natured man would treat the vilest beggar. In this manner a 
century passed away." 

6 



74 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

Plunkett, greatest of the great orators of the House 
of Commons at its greatest period, 

To whom with one consent, 

All yield the crown in the high argument; 

Father Mathew, whose inspired word exorcised the 
demon of intemperance from the bosoms of hundreds 
of thousands of his countrymen ; O'Connell, before 
whom England trembled ; Curran, Shell, Flood, are 
but a few of the gi'eat names which have adorned the 
annals of this down-trodden people. 

It is true, they brought with them faults, the result 
of their long bondage, and some very grave faults, 
peculiar to their race. But is it not also true, that our 
experience of thirty years has shown their capacity for 
rapid advancement ? Self government and freedom 
are great educators ; as the history of our western 
communities, as well as our own, abundantly proves. 

We need not go outside of our own local history for 
proof of the courage and soldierly quality of the Irish 
race. We need not recount the history of a hundred 
foreign battle-fields, where their valor has given victory 
to a flag, which to them, was only the emblem of 
oppression. We need not revert to our Revolutionary 
annals to remember Montgomery ; or trace the lineage 
of Andrew Jackson ; or name the name of Sheridan, — 
the illustrious soldier at the head of our army to-day. 
When the news came of the dishonor to our flag at 
Sumter, the prompt enlistment of the Emmet Guards, 
the first organization of foreign blood, one of the very 
first of any blood, that marched to the war, has been 



ME. HOAR'S ADDRESS. 75 

well said to be " a representative fact of the very 
highest importance to the permanent character of our 
Government." Who can read, without tears of joy, 
and pride, and thanksgiving to Almighty God, that he 
has given such men to be his countrymen, the story of 
the death of O'Neil, — that natural gentleman, who said 
when he was dying, " Write to my dear mother, and 
tell her I die for my country. I wish I had two lives 
to give. Let the Union flag be wrapped about me, and 
a fold of it laid under my head," — of the devoted and 
tender McConville, who died at Cold Harbor, with the 
name of his mother on his lips, — of him who gave both 
arms to save the flag of the country he loved, and 
whose stout and constant heart has never yet regretted 
the sacrifice.^ 

I will not dwell upon the strength of the domestic 
affection of that people whose generosity to the kindred 
they left behind them is without parallel, — or upon the 
much needed lesson they give to us of reverence for 
the sacredness of the marriage tie. I have said enough, 
already, of the fruits of their severe and patient 
industry. 

The French, our brethren and allies, who lend so 
much of grace and romance to our early history, and 
who contributed so much to our independence ; the 



1 Sergeant Thomas Plunkett was present at the delivery of this address. He was 
born in Ireland in 1840, and came to this country in 1845. He was Corporal Co. A, 
21st Mussacliusetts Volunteers. At the battle of Fredericksburg the regiment was 
ordered to charge and passed under a terrific fire from the rebel batteries. The Color- 
Sergeant was shot. Sergeant Plunkett raised the colors, bore them to the front, 
raised the staff in the air, when both his arms were struck and torn away by a shell. 
He bore his calamity for more than twenty years with invincible patience and cheer- 
fulness, and died March 10, 1885. 



76 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

Germans, an element more numerous and not less 
valuable than any other, taking the eountiy through ; 
the Scandinavian, the Spanish, are to contribute their 
elements to the mass, which the centuries are to knead. 
Certain types will be, for a time, locally predominant. 
But it is well said by a thoughtful writer who has 
carefully examined the disclosures of the census, that 
" Ethnologically, the change will be slight. Supposing 
the entire mass to be fused, the Celtic and Teutonic 
blood, the Latin and the Norman, would be mingled 
in much the same proportions as they wei'e in the veins 
of the oi'iginal English settlers. The American of the 
future, supposing present foi'ces to continue, and all 
white elements to fuse equally, would be almost as 
much an Anglo-Saxon as the American of 1820." 

I have spoken, imperfectly, of our military history. 
I have not dwelt at length on the familiar and tempting 
topic of the relation between the mechanic arts and the 
love of liberty. But I should fail in my duty, if I did 
not speak of the chief civic glory of Worcester, her 
leadership in the great political movement which 
resulted in the freedom of the slave. Worcester had 
very early indicated her opinion in this matter. Her 
brave soldier of the Revolution, Timothy Bigelow, said, 
" while fighting for liberty, he never would be guilty of 
selling slaves." Levi Lincoln, the trusted friend of 
Jefferson, the great leader and organiser in New 
England in the overthrow of the Federal party, and the 
establishment of its successor in power, argued, in 
1781, in the Worcester Court House, the great case in 



MR. HOAR'S ADDRESS. 77 

which it was held that slavery could not exist under the 
Constitution of Massachusetts. The case was first 
tried in the Inferior Court, whose Judges were three 
Worcester County farmers. The Court and Jury, fully 
representing the sentiment of the people, sustained the 
argument of Lincoln that " the black child is boi-n as 
much a free child as if it were white ;" that "it is a 
law of nature that all men are equal and free ; " that 
" the law of nature is the law of God, whose gospel is 
the perfect law of liberty." The Superior Court sus- 
tained the decision, on appeal. This decision, in the 
higher court, was based on a clause in the Bill of 
Rights of Massachusetts, in all probability inserted foi" 
that very purpose. Worcester shared the intense 
indignation of all Massachusetts at the passage of the 
Missouri compromise in 1820. When after the close 
of the Mexican war in 1847, the great struggle between 
Freedom and Slavery for the possession of the territory 
west of the Mississippi began, it found the workshops 
of Worcester filled with skilful, intelligent, thoughtful, 
liberty-loving mechanics. They were very largely the 
sons of the farmers of the county, who had adopted the 
occupation demanded by the new wants of the time. 
They had drunk in, with their native aii-, a love of 
constitutional liberty. They held themselves disgraced, 
they deemed labor, their own crown and pride, dis- 
honored, by the existence of slavery anywhere on 
American soil. I^o orator visited Worcester to plead 
that cause, who did not find his audience in advance 
of his teaching. 



78 BI-CENTENlSnAL CELEBRATION. 

I claim for the people of Worcester city and county 
a service and leadership in the political revolution 
which achieved the freedom of the slave, to which the 
contribution of no individual is to be compared. 
Charles Allen did a heroic act, when, at Philadelphia, 
he predicted the dissolution of his party, then in tlie 
very delirium of anticipated triumph, and came home 
to summon the people of his young city to his side. 
He was one of the very greatest of men. But he could 
scarcely have looked his neighbors in the face, had he 
done otherwise. Elsewhere, it was, at best, a party, 
that was on the side of freedom. Here, it was a 
people. I see that other localities are now making 
claim to be the birthplace of the Anti-slavery cause, 
which would hardly have acknowledged the paternity 
at the time. So, 

" Seven mijjlity cities claimed great Homer dead, 
Thioiisili which the living Homer begged his bread. " 

We will not discuss their title. But as surely as 
Faneuil Hall was the cradle of American Independence, 
so surely was Worcester the cradle of the later revolu- 
tion. 

Honor to whom honor is due. Writers of history 
have been too apt to ascribe the great results which 
have been accomplished in this country, to the influence 
of prominent persons, and to overlook the strength, 
wisdom and power of a popular sense whicli those 
prominent persons have but obeyed. The oratoi-s have 
been faithful to their own guild. Eulogists have given 
the credit of leading the people to eloquent men who 



MR. HOAR'S ADDRESS. 79 

have merely uttered their voice ; sometimes, to eloquent 
men whom the people have never recognized either as 
safe, or as sane, counsellors. Why should we build 
our monument to men who have been always in the 
wrong, whose counsel, if taken, would have brought 
ruin and disaster, and foi'get the reverence due to a 
people always in the right. Eloquence is a sorry 
leader if it do not utter the voice of sobriety and 
wisdom. The love of Freedom is but a rank and 
poisonous weed in that soil where the love of Truth 
does not grow. The teachers of our people have ever 
been grave and serious men, little removed, either in 
thought or pui'pose, fi'om the people themselves. The 
American Revolution was not the result of a passionate 
outcry of Patrick Henry, or James Otis. Constitu- 
tional liberty is no mushroom, springing up in a night. 
It is an oaken growth, slowly adding ring to ring, 
through many a summer's heat and winter's cold. If 
Worcester has had few great leaders, it is because her 
people have been leaders. 

In looking back upon the relation of Worcester to 
constitutional liberty, from the time of her planting in 
the forest, down to the close of the rebellion, and the 
great consummation in the adoption of the three 
amendments to the constitution, you can find no time 
from the beginning, when, in the light of experience, 
you could wish her people had acted otherwise. 

In tracing the great forces which have given charac- 
ter to our history, I have omitted the most interesting 
and important of all, the place occupied by woman in 



80 BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

9 

our social life. This noble theme does not peculiarly 

belong to a historic sketch of Worcester. She, who 

" Stays all the f;iii' vouu!; planet in her hands," 

has hei"e contributed her full share to whatever of 
glory or honor can be found in our story. The moral 
temperament, which determines permanently the history 
of any community, is given to it by its women. 
Whether it be true, as physiologists tell us, that, as a 
rule, the mental and moral qualities of children come 
from the mother, and the physical only from the father, 
it is at least true that children learn to follow what is 
excellent in the examples of their fathers, from the 
teachings of their mothers. If our children, in future 
generations, are to imitate whatever there has been of 
heroism in their ancestors, if they are to love their 
country, if they are to be brave, free, generous, gentle, 
they must learn the lesson, as their fathers learnt it, at 
their mother's knees. No nation, no city, no house- 
hold, ever took a lofty place, where the influence of 
woman did not inspire it with the heroic temper. 
DeTocqueville says : " I do not hesitate to say, that 
they give to every nation a moral temperament, which 
shows itself in its politics. A hundred times I have 
seen weak men show real public virtue, because they 
had by their sides women who supported them, not by 
advice as to particulars, but by fortifying their feelings 
of duty, and directing their ambition. More frequently, 
I must confess, I have observed the domestic influence 
gradually transforming a man, naturally generous, 
noble, and unselfish, into a cowardly, common-place. 



MR. HOAR'S ADDRESS. 81 

place-hunting self-seeker, thinking of public business 
only as the means of making himself comfortable ; — 
and this sirajjly by daily contact with a well-conducted 
woman, a faithful wife, an excellent mother, but from 
whose mind the grand notion of public duty was 
entirely absent." 

This is the Frenchman's experience. But the great 
philosopher of jSTew England said better. "What is 
civilization ? " says Emerson, " I answer, the power of 
good women." The legislation of the last half-century 
has placed woman very nearly in a condition of legal 
equality with man, with one large exception. It has not 
yet seemed wise to the majority of either sex to clothe 
her with the ballot. But in every other way, from the 
planting in the forest until this hour, her influence in 
our public life has been on the heroic side. She sent 
out, comforted, sustained, welcomed home, inspired, 
rewarded, the soldiers in the Revolution, and in the later 
and greater war. She enlisted earliest, and was most 
constant, in the great civic contest with slavery. On 
every great occasion, her uncounted vote has been 
counted. 

And now, as the solemn shadow marks upon the dial 
the passage of two hundred years, may we not hope that 
the Power that has been with our Fathers will be with 
our children ? Will he vouchsafe to them that the 
virtues, born of adversity, shall survive the prosperity 
they have created ? The old rural life has gone. 

Massachusetts is to be, henceforth, in large degree, but 

7 



82 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

a cluster of cities. The contest witli wild beast, and 
savage, and winter, and forest, and rocky soil, is over. 
He, who encountered and overcame these rude but giant 
forces, with no servant but his good right arm, is now 
an emperor, on whose bidding countless wondrous 
mechanisms, and steam and electricity, and the force, 
which winter snows, and spring and autumn rain, gather 
up and store, in lake and river, wait as humble and 
obsequious vassals. The race, trained for ages in the 
venerable maxims of English law and English freedom, 
is to share its self-government with races to whom law 
has for ages appeared only as tyranny, and liberty been 
known only in its excesses. To the healthful inspira- 
tion of poverty have succeeded the temptations of wealth. 
But there is no old age in our blood. We are still 
a people in early youth. We must expect, for many 
generations, a continuance of that wonderful growth, 
which, for the last half-century, has outrun the wildest 
prediction. As Burke said of the colonial populations : 
"State the numbers as high as we will, while the dis- 
pute continues, the exaggeration ends." We have our 
stimulant climate, in which work and not rest is the 
luxury both for muscle and brain. The Worcester P 

mechanic, in the strife for supremacy, testing every 
intellectual power to the utmost, is to be spurred to 
exertion in a race in which modern improvement in 
transportation makes all mankind his competitors. God 
has given here, as nowhere else, inventive skill to the 
brain of man. In our children great races are to be 
blended, who will contribute the qualities of which great 



MR. HOAR'S ADDRESS. 83 

states are builded. They will have learned to deem 
Education, Freedom, and Justice, the prime necessities 
of life. They will be part of the foremost state of a 
great and free nation. They will inhei-it institutions of 
self-government, built by great architects on sure founda- 
tions. The American spirit, product of German brain, 
and Celtic heart, and Norseman's restlessness, and 
English constancy, which brought across the sea the 
love of liberty and reverence for law, will be theirs, 
enlarged, strengthened, invigorated, purified by centu- 
ries of life and growth in congenial air. If God give 
to them, as to their Fathers, faith in a personal immor- 
tality, and in that word which when Heaven and Earth 
pass away, shall endure, the foundation of their city 
shall stand secure. 



His Excellency the Governor was next introduced, and 
spoke as follows : 

GOVERNOR ROBINSON'S ADDRESS. 



Mr. Mayor, and Ladies and Oentlemen: 
This anniversary of to-day is so peculiarly the occa- 
sion for the sons and citizens of old Worcester, that 
more than a brief word from one who can claim no 
preeminence by reason of birth or residence here, must 
seem to be an invasion and interruption of cherished 
memories and associations. And especially after you 
have so fully enjoyed the able and scholarly address 
which your cultui-ed fellow-citizen and our distin- 
guished Senator has given, it would be fruitless, indeed, 
for me to attempt to add words of instruction or 
inspiration in harmony with the sentiment of the hour. 

But I cannot be unmindful of the fact, that Massa- 
chusetts holds an unquestionable right to stand as an 
interested spectator of your celebration, and to express 
her recognition of the marvellous triumphs in domestic, 
social, religious, intellectual and material development 
accomplished here — the abundant harvest of the planta- 
tion established two centuries ago. 

More than a hundred years before John Hancock 
was inaugurated as the first governor of the Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts under our existing constitu- 
tion, the slopes of Pakachoag and the borders of the 
beautiful Quinsigamond — midway between Boston and 



80 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

Springfield and a day's journey from either — had been 
selected and occupied for settlement. By so long a 
period does Worcester antedate the foundation of our 
ancient Commonwealth under its present organization. 
The men who first placed their dwellings here came 
not as adventurers, but to found homes, to perform 
labor, to encounter hardship, to subdue the wilder- 
ness, to overcome the savagery of man and nature. 
Supported and solaced by religion, devoted to home, 
church and liberty, united in bonds of brotherhood, 
they set themselves heroically to the Lord's work and 
considered no sacrifice in its behalf too great for them 
to endure. As is true in all times, the history of this 
people illustrates most clearly the characteristics of the 
first founders. Though generations, one after another, 
have come and gone, the early impressions are still 
visible in the character of the inhabitants of to-day and 
will mould and shape the institutions of the future. 

As hand in hand with the orator we have wandered 
up and down the familiar hills, along the beautiful 
valleys, by river and late, over paths first trod by the 
foot of the savage, we have lingered at the old home- 
steads, recalled the scenes of the past, witnessed the 
struggles of the earlier days and the greater achieve- 
ments in later time, until we stand in mute wonder at 
the transformation of the lonely hamlet into the thriving 
city, beautified and illustrated with homes, churches, 
schools, colleges, libraries, factories, asylums, — a city 
unsurpassed in our State in the general thrift and 
contentment of the people. 



GOVERNOR ROBINSON'S ADDRESS. 87 

The sentiment of this community has ever been 
largely influential in determining the policy of the State. 
The record of official service has been singularly 
adorned, in all departments, by the ability and integrity 
of the men upon whom public trusts have been placed. 
Notwithstanding the many honored incumbents Wor- 
cester has furnished for the highest executive chair of 
the Commonwealth, there has always been an abiding 
conviction that she had never exhausted the number of 
her citizens who were equal to the responsibility, and 
if, perchance, the people of the State evinced a purpose 
to invite a citizen of some other municipality to the 
gubernatorial otfice, the voice of Worcester could not 
be safely disregarded in making the selection. 

It is out of such towns and cities — by so high order 
of citizenship — by the general intelligence, enterprise, 
industry, sobriety and uprightness of the people — that 
Massachusetts has attained hei* high rank as an honored 
and prosperous free Commonwealth — expressive of the 
highest genius and inspiration of the republic. 

"The riches of the Commouwealtb 
Are free, strong minds and liearts of health. 
And more to her than gold or grain, 
The cunning hand and cultured brain." 

While we express pride at the past, we must remem- 
ber that the burden of the present rests upon us. The 
future will write its judgment of the present. To-day 
the searcher of history is not sui'e of the origin of the 
name of this city of Worcester, but in the coming time, 
if tlie promise of the present is wrought out, the 



88 



BI-CENTENNIAL CELKBRATION. 



numerous communities scattered over the land, name- 
sakes of yours, will point to this city, and not across 
the Atlantic to heighten the dignity of their names. I 
thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your invitation to join in this 
celebration, and I bring to Worcester the congratula- 
tions of Massachusetts and abundant greeting. 



i 



Hon. Charles Devens was the next speaker, and made the 
closing address of the evening, as follows : 

HON, CHARLES DEYENS'S ADDRESS. 



Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens : 

I DO not know exactly why I am called upon as a 
guest, for I consider myself a citizen of Worcester, and 
can produce that best of all evidence, a receipted tax 
bill. Whether I had been invited or not, I should have 
come, and one does not like to be treated as a guest 
when he thinks he is in his own house. 

The highest place of honor is given by Lord Bacon 
to those who have been the founders of States and those 
older nations whose origin is lost in the mists of antiquity 
have invested those from whom they claimed their 
descent with the drapery of fiction and romance. The 
Romans held that Romulus descended from the immor- 
tal gods themselves. 

But we know the founders of New England as they 
were — no mists obscure, no romance throws around 
them its glittering halo — with many imperfections, 
doubtless (imperfections that have been sometimes too 
much insisted on), they were ever far in advance of 
the age in which they lived. If we do not think on all 



90 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

points as they did, if we deem that our liberality is 
larger and wider, wo shall still do well to imitate their 
firm faith, theii' devotion to duty, their readiness to 
sacrifice all material prosperity to what they held to be 
just and right. Grave and stern they were : they 
came to make homes for themselves and their faith in 
the wilderness, to meet the murderous savage, to 
eucounter the rude climate, to subdue the stubborn soil, 
and to brave the wrath, if need be, of a powerful ting. 
Earnestly and thoughtfully they counted all the cost 
and their glance was never turned back. 

It is interesting to know that the three names before 
us, as the founders of our city, are those of three soldiers 
of the great army of the Pai-liament of England ; and 
not less interesting to learn that our coi'porate name is 
derived, not from that of the ancient city of Worcester, 
but from the battle fought there, of which Oliver Crom- 
well always spoke as "the crowning mercy of the 
Lord." As we summon these men by the power of 
the imagination before us we may see them as they 
stood together on that day, forever memorable hi the 
history of English liberty. 

" Such faces glared from Ire ton's srim platoons, 
Such figures rode with Skippon's stout (h'agoons." 

The colonies of England in this country were very 
various in their origin and views, and it is a matter of 
some surprise that at the period of our revolution it 
was possible so well to unite them. To some even a 
monarchical government was not distaseful, if its exac- 
tions were not unreasonable. But the people of New 



HON. CHARLES DEVENS'S ADDRESS. 91 

England knew always why their fathers had left the 
pleasant fields of old England and made their home 
here. Others might have come tempted by enterprise 
oi- the advantages that a new woi'ld might offer. They 
came for neither wealth nor gain, but in the assertion 
of their liberty to think and act as conscience bade 
them. It is their spirit that has pervaded New 
England always with high resolve and determined 
purpose when hours of trial have come. It was that 
when the time of separation from England came that 
filled our councils with men like John Adams and gave 
strength and fire to our armies. It was the same spirit 
which, when the war of the rebellion buist upon us, 
nerved the arms and gave courage to the hearts of the 
young and brave whom we sent forth to die upon a 
hundred battle-fields. What were "the boys," as you 
loved to call them twenty-three years ago, but "the 
bronze recast of the old heroic ages." 

And as I speak of them and recall the remarks of the 
orator of the evening, let me remember among those 
very dear to me, the Emmet Guards, which were 
included in my first command. When the war broke 
out they preserved only a social organization and were 
not in the militia of the State. They had been 
disbanded in a storm, such as sometimes sweeps over 
communities, and which forbade any companies except 
those composed of men of native birth. When the 
word for marching came they said to me, while in 
charge of getting together the battalion, the command 
of which I had accepted, " We are not of the militia of 



92 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

Massachusetts, but we are ready to go with you if our 
officers cau be regularly commissioned and recognized 
as a part of the militia of the State." Certainly no 
request was ever more reasonable nor any offer more 
gallant. It cost a telegram of five lines to send it to 
Governor Andrew and you all know how he answered it. 
But, my friends, let me not by words of mine inter- 
rupt the curi'ent of thought inspired by the lips of our 
orator. Looking back for two hundred years we stand 
on the verge of a new century. We have a right to a 
just pride in the city which is ours, with its temples of 
worship, its marts of business, its workshops and forges 
which send out the streaming blazonry of their fires 
through the silent night, but we are prouder still of its 
thousand happy homes. The future has no doubt its 
trials and its struggles for us and for those who are to 
come after us, yet let us hope they are to be those of 
peace. May we rear here great captains, but may they 
be captains in the armies of industry, whose pathway 
shall be marked, not by devastated fields or the smoke 
that goes up from the conquered town, but by the smil- 
ing village and the cheerful light from the contented 
fireside of those whose labor has received its just 
reward. May they be captains whose \-ictories are 
won for the common comfort and happiness of all men. 
Large as oui' product now may be, whether computed 
in tons or counted in dollars, still may the largest and 
the best product of Worcester always be noble, high- 
souled men and women. 



From Mechanics Hall, at the close of the exercises, the 
Committee escorted the guests of the city to the Bay State 
House, where a collation was provided, thus closing the 
features of the evening. 

THE STREET PARADE. 



Wednesday, the 15th of October, was celebrated with an 
enthusiasm inspiring to see. It is safe to sa}^ that never 
before during the two centuries of the existence of Worcester 
as town and city had so many people been brought within 
corporate limits as in the throngs that filled the streets on the 
da}' of the great procession. 

The citizens entered fully into the meaning of the occasion. 
Decorations were abundant and displa^'ed with great skill and 
taste, showing on either side of the principal thoroughfares 
continuous lines of bunting, mottoes, portraits of Washington 
and revolutionary heroes, and goddesses of liberty. The 
shop windows abounded in displayed relics of the ancient 
times, old maps, and pictures of Worcester and curiosities and 
antiques in endless variety. 

Says the Spy of October Kith : 

" It was a gala &iy for Worcester. In the celebratioD old and young 
ioiiieU, and from the neighborina; towns came thousands to witness the 
festivities. The various railroads brought in more than 15,000 people, which, 
added to the arrivals of the day previous and those who came by private con- 
veyance, made the number of strangers fully 25,000. It is not an extrava- 
gant estimate to place the number in the streets when the procession was 
moving at upwards of 80,000. Good order prevailed all day. Worcester 
people were satisfied with what had been provided for them, and visitors 
were fully convinced that the progiessive spirit which has put Worcester 
where it is to-day still exists, and will carry the city forward in its third 
century." 

Says the Worcester Evening Gazette of the same date : 

" The decorations were the most general and elaborate ever seen in Wor- 
cester, and speak the interest and co-operation with which the event is 



94 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBKATION. 

welcomed by all classes of citizens. We have made some mention of 
localities decorated, but no description can give an idea of their extent and 
variety. The crowds, which were thronging everywhere, found ample occu- 
pation in gazing and admiring." 

The city decorations included the arch over Main Street in 
front of the entrance to the City Hall, the City Hall building, 
the Old South Church, the Soldiers' and the Bigelow monu- 
ments, Mechanics Hall, and around the north, east and south 
sides of the Common. The arch which spanned Main Street 
was of white and bore upon its south side the Latin motto 
" Civitas in bello et in -pace jidelis " ' a free translation of which 
is "A city faithful in war and in peace." Below the motto on 
either side were shields with the dates — lt)S4, 1884 — and 
near the base, figures of the Revolutionary soldier. On the 
north side were the words: "The Heart of the Common- 
wealth welcomes home her Sons and Daughters." Below, 
the shields and dates were repeated, and the figures upon the 
base were, on one side, a portrait of Washington, upon the 
other, the Goddess of Liberty. Pendant from the arch hung 
festoons of laurel leaves ; over the keystone was the figure of 
an eagle with a cluster of flags upon either side. Flags were 
also supported on short staifs at each side of the arch ; other 
flags hung at the sides. 

On the front of the City Hall the central figure represented 
Washington mounted. The background was a large flag 
caught at the top in the talons of a gilt eagle. The remain- 
ing decorations of the front were festoons of bunting with 
small flags at the corners and upon the lamp posts. On the 
north side the central figure was the Goddess of Liberty, 
surrounded by streamers of bunting looped from corner to 
corner of the building ; at the upper corners were large flags. 
The east entrance to the hall was draped with flags and 
bunting. 

On the west side of the Old South Church the centre was 
an allegorical picture surrounded by flags and bunting, the 



'This motto was received by the City of Worcester, England, from Charles II. at 
the Restoration. 



THE STREET PARADE. 95 

latter caught up to the top of the second window from each 
end of the building. Flags were also suspended from the 
tops of the windows. On the north front hung festoons of 
bunting, flags and shields, and on the south end bunting and 
flags and a full-length portrait of Washington. There was 
also a band of bunting around the lower part of tlie belfry. 

A white banner hung on the east side, and upon it were 
inscribed the names of twenty-five of the early settlers in the 
town : — 

Daniel Henchman, Nathl. Henchman, 

John Wing, Ephraim Curtis, 

Thomas Brown, William Weeks, 

Thomas Atherton, Isaac Bull, 

George Pyke, Caleb Sawyer, 

John Turner, William Paine, 

Daniel Turell, Digory Serjent, 

James Holmes, Isaac Tomlin, 

Mathew Tomlin, George Rosbury, 

Thomas Hall, Peter Goulding, 

Samuel Daniel, George Ripley, 

Charles Williams, Alex. Bogell, 
Isaac George. 

The Soldiers' Monument and the Col. Timothy Bigelow 
Monument were each decorated with streamers and garlands 
of bunting interwoven. Lines of small banners were hung 
at intervals across Front Street, Salem Square and Park 
Street. On Salem Square the lines of small banners were 
continued, and at the east end of the Common was designated 
the place of the old burial-ground, the second place used for 
that purpose in the town. Arches of red, white and blue 
bunting were erected over Front Street, Salem Square and 
Park Street, making a very fine effect as the procession 
passed under them. 

Beginning at the foot of Chatham Street and passing down 
Main Street towards the north, the business blocks were very 



96 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

handsomely decorated, in many instances, and in nearly all 
places some recognition of the day was made. 

On the front of Mechanics Mall, the centre-piece was 
formed by a large flag gathered in the centre, over which in 
large gilt letters on a dark ground WL're the words "Worcester 
Bi-Centennial." Long streamers of bunting crossed from 
above and below surrounded the centre-piece, a broad band 
of bunting extended across above the second story windows, 
and streamers were hung from the apex of the front to the 
corners. Lines of small banners were hung from the corners 
of the building to the end of the flag staff. 

It was a happy thought, giving up Court House Hill to the 
scln)ol children, from \vhicli point of secure advantage several 
thousands of them watched the parade with unceasing interest. 
The best of order was maintained, and the bright, cheerful 
faces of the young people was strong evidence that they 
thoroughly enjoyed the pageant and appreciated the efforts 
of tliose who had provided for their comfort. 

About 400 pupils of the High and Grammar Schools, under 
the direction of Principal A. S. Roe of the High School, also 
took part in the procession. 

That all the arrangements were most caretully perfected 
was shown by the promptness and precision of every move- 
ment made in connection with the celebration. Not only was 
the procession well handled, but the minor details, which 
had so much to do with the grand success, were most fully 
perfected. 

Promptly at ten o'clock the strokes on the fire alarm bells 
uave tiie siijnal, and If) minutes later, at the exact time 
appointed, the procession was in motion, the several divisions 
falling in promptly. There were twelve brass bands in the 
line, and between 4,000 and 5,000 men. 

For the promptness with which the procession was started 
and the admirable manner in which all the details were 
carried out, especial credit is due to Chief Marshal Pickett 
and his very efficient corps of aides and assistants. 

The City Marshal had been instructed bj- the Mayor to 



THE PROCESSION. 97 

keep the following streets clear of carriages during the forma- 
tion and passage of the procession ; and so well was this duty 
attended to, as were also other services of the police, that 
Chief Marshal Pickett sent a special letter of acknowledgment 
to City Marshal Atkinson thanking him for the efficient work 
of his department. 

Main Street from Claremont Street to Lincoln Square. 
Highland Street from Lincoln Square to Harvard Street. 
Harvard Street from Highland Street to Bowdoin Stnet. 
Bowdoin Street from Harvard Street to Chestnut Street. 
Chestnut Street from Bowdoin Street to Cedar Street. 
Cedar Street from Chestnut Street to Oak Street. 
Oak Street from Cedar Street to Elm Street. 
Elm Street from Main Street to Oak Street. 
Ashland Street from Elm Street to Pleasant Street. 
Pleasant Street from Main Street to West Street. 
Irving Street from Pleasant Street to Chatham Street. 
Chatham Street from Irving Street to JIain Street. 
May Street from Main Street to Silver Street. 
Silver Street from May Street to Claremont Street. 
Claremont Street from Silver Street to Main Street. 
Park Street from Main Street to Salem Square. 
Salem Square from Park Street to Front Street. 
Front .Street from Main Street to Bridge Street. 
Bridge Street from Front Street to Foster Street. 
Foster Street from Main Street to Bridge Street. 



THE PROCESSION. 

[N<">TE.— The dagger (t) indicatee that the person against whose name it is placed served in the Union army or 
navy in the war of the rebellion.} 

The make-up of the procession, which was an hour in 
passing a given point, was as follows : 

Mounted Police, City Marshal Amos Atkinson commanding. 

Escort of the Chief Marshal. 

American Brass Band of Providence, 24 pieces, D. C. Reeves, leader. 

Worcester Continentals, 70 men, Lieut.-Col. W. S. B. Hopkins,! commanding. 

Staff. 

Chief of Staff, Capt. Nathaniel Paine; 1st Lieut, and Adjutant, E. A. Wood;t 

1st Lieut, and Quartermaster, W. D. Holbrook; Capt. and 

Judge Advocate, John R. Tha.yer; 2d Lient. 

and Commissary, N. S. Liscomb.f 
8 



98 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

Non-commissioned Staff. 

Sergeant Major, William McCieady;t Sergeant, EUery B. Crane; 

Sergeant anti Clerk, Geo. H. Harlow; Sergeant and 

Treasurer, Chas. A. Waite. 

Honorary /Staff. 

Capt. Augustus Whittemore, Capt. W. H. Cundy, Maj. Charles W. Stevens, 
Lieut. George H. Gibson, Lieut. G. 11. .411en, all of the Ancient and Honorable 
Artillery Company of Boston; Col. C. M. Van Slyck, Lieut.-Col. I. L. Goff, 
Capt. J. F. Dnffy, Capt. K. M. Clark, Quartermaster E. Brown, Assistant 
Quartermaster McStirn, Paymaster E. C. Danforth and Assistant Surgeon 
Keene, all of the United Train of Artillery of Providence ; Col. E. J. Trull, 
Gen. D. W. Wardrop, Capt. J. Bensemoil, Lieut. W. G. Shillaber, Lieut. F. 
H. Little, of the Boston Light Infantry Veterans ; Lieut. Samuel Hobbs and 
Lieut. Howard Wade, of the Boston Light Infantry ; Lieut.-Col. A. C. Eddy 
and Lieut. J. H. Welch, of the Providence Light Infantry Veteran Association. 

Line: — Co. C, Capt. W. S. Jourdan; Co. D (colors), 1st Lieut. John N. 
Morse, Jr., commanding; Co. A, 1st Lieut. H. J. Jennings, t commanding; 
Co. B, Capt. Chas. B. Whiting. 

Colt's Band of Hartford, 25 pieces, W. C. Sparry, leader. 

Governor's Foot Guards of Hartford, 120 men. Major J. 0. Kinney 
commanding. 

Staff: — Adjutant, J. Robert Dwyer; Paymaster, C. Strong; Quartermaster, 
L. T. Fenn; Commissary, Leander Hall; Judge Advocate, E. Henry Hyde; 
Surgeon, W. A. M. Wainwright; Inspector, R. L. Hungerford; Engineer, 
George B. Fisher. 

Line Officers: — Captain J. C. Pratt; 2d Lieutenant, Theodore Naudel; 3d 
Lieutenant, F. C. Clark; Ensign, Horace Lord. 

CHIEF MARSHAL, GEN. JOSIAH PICKETT.f 

Chief of Staff, Major E. T. Raymond.f 

Surgeon, Dr. J. Marcus Rice;t Assistant-Surgeon, Dr. Charles H. Davis; 
Chaplain, Rev. Joseph F. Lovering;t Quartermaster, David Boyden;t Assis- 
tant-Quartermaster, Lieut. J. B. Willard;t Commissary, Harlan Fairbanks;! 
Assistant-Commissary, John F. Bicknell ;t Provost Marshal, Joseph M. 
Dyson.f 

Aides. 

Gen. A. B. R. Sprague,t Col. T. S. Johnson, Maj. Joseph P. Mason, Maj. 
L. G. White, Capt. George M. Woodward,t Capt. James Connor,t Capt. 
Charles S. Chapin,t Capt. Winslow S. Lincoln, Wm. J. Hogg, Charles S. 
Barton, George B. Witter, Frank E. Lancaster, Edward O. Parker, Noel E. 
Converse,! Color Bearer ; Lucius White, Bugler. 



THE PROCESSION. 99 

Honorary Staff. 

Gen. S. H. Leonard.t Col. J. M. Drenn.in,+ Col. J. M. Stndley.t Lieut.W. B. 
Harrling.t Dr. Napoleon Jacques, Stephen Salisbury, Seneca M. Richardson, 
Cliarles W. Wood.f George B. Buckingham, Maj. Chas. H. Davis, + Dr. H. Y. 
Simpson, R. J. Tatman, William H. Bliss, Alzirus Brown, George E. Boydeu, 
E. B. Crane, Capt. John S. Baldwin, t Maj. Frank E. GoodwlD.t Maj. B. D. 
Dwinnell,t Dr. Albert Wood.f 



FIRST DIVISION. 

Fitchburg Band, G. D. Patz, leader. 

Sacred Heart Cadets and St. Anne's Cadet Drum Corps. 

Marshal, Gen. R. H. Chamberlain ;t Assistant Marshals, Major E. R. Shum- 
way,t Lieut. P. L. Rider. 

Worcester Light Infantry, 50 men. Captain, Edward A. Harris; 1st Lieut. 
Aaron S. Taft; 2d Lieut. William A. Pickett. 

Worcester City Guards, 51 men, Captain, George H. Cleveland; 1st Lieut. 
James Early ; 2d Lieut. W. D. Preston. 

Co. F, Second Regiment, M. V. M., of Gardner, 48 men, Captain, Solon T. 
Chamberlain ; 1st Lieut. Chas. N. Edgell, ; 2d Lieut. Jonas Sawin. 

George H. Ward Post 10, G. A. R., Department of Massachusetts, 150 men, 

Commander, Wm. L. Robinson ; Senior Vice Commander, Harvey T. 

Buck; Junior Vice Commander, Cephas N. Walker; 

Adjutant, Chas. H. Benchley. 

1st Co., Captain, George H. Conklin. 
2d Co., Captain, G. A. B. Hill. 

3d Co., Captain, John J. Upham. 

4th Co., Captain, David W. Roach. 

5th Co., Captain, George Weeks. 

6th Co., Captain, J. J. Beaumont. 

7th Co., Captain, C. W. Wilson. 
8th Co., Captain, Nelson Stark. 

Color Co., Captain, John G. Brewer. 

10th Co., Captain, J. N. Jones. 

11th Co., Captain, Herbert A. Kimball. 

12th Co., Captain, George H. Hathorne. 

13th Co., Captain, A. E. Stearns. 

General A. A. Goodell Camp, No. 2, Sons of Veterans, 30 men; Captain, 

E. A. Gleason; 1st Lieutenant, George K. Robinson; 

2d Lieutenant, Fred. M. Terapleton. 

Emmet Guards, 40 men ; Captain, Wm. Regan ; 1st Lieutenant, T. F. McAuley ; 
2d Lieutenant, Bernard Wllmot. 



I 



100 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

St. John's Cadets, 35 men ; Captain, J. J. Hughes ; 1st Lieutenant, L. J. 
Loutlier; 2d Lieutenant, T. Herr. 

Sacred Heart Cadets, 35 men; Captain James Grady, Commander; Captain, 

T. J. Calvin ; 1st Lieutenant, Edward Campbell ; 

2d Lieutenant, Daniel McAuliffe. 

St. Anne's Cadets, 50 meu ; Captain, J. E. Underwood ; 1st Lieutenant, Thomas 
Joyce ; 2d Lieutenant, John Cronin. 

St. Anne's Temperance Guards, 42 men; Captain, Jeremiah Mara; 1st Lieu- 
tenant, Dennis Clifford ; 2d Lieutenant, Edward Fitzpatiick. 

Battery B, Light Artillery, 1st Brigade, M. V. M. ; Captain, Fred. W. 

Wellington; Senior 1st Lieutenant, Mason A. Boyden;t Junior 

1st Lieutenant, Henry E. Smith ;t 2d Lieutenant, 

John E. Merrill. 

His Honor Charles G. Reed, Mayor, with the following guests of the city, 
in carriages: — His Excellency Governor Robinson, Adjt.-Gen. Dalton, the 
Governor's Staff, Major Ben : Perley Poore, Hon. W. W. Rice, P. L. Moen, 
Hon. Charles B. Pratt, Hon. Thomas A. Doyle, Mayor of Providence; Hon. 
Hervey G. Lewis, Mayor of New Haven ; Hon. John Breen, Mayor of 
Lawrence; Hon. James E. Delaney, Mayor of Holyoke; Hon. John J. 
Donovan, Mayor of Lowell; Hon. J. Wesley Kimball, Mayor of Newton; 
Hon. Augustus P. Martin. Mayor of Boston; Hon. Thomas Strahan, Mayor 
of Chelsea; Hon. .\lonzo Davis, Mayor of Fitchburg; Hon. Lewis T. Fuller, 
Mayor of Maiden ; Hon. J. C. Lathrop, Mayor of Dover, N. H. ; Hon. Calvin 
Page, Mayor of Portsmouth, N. H. ; Hon. Daniel H. Morgan, Mayor of 
Bridgeport, Conn. ; Hon. T. L. Nelson, Prof. Francis O. March, of Lafaj'ette 
College, Penn. ; Hon. Clark Jillson, A. G. Walker, George Croinpton, Hon. 
F. H. Kelley, Hon. Edward L. Davis, Hon. E. B. Stoddard, Hon. Peter C. 
Bacon, J. Henry Hill, F. P. Goulding, Waldo Lincoln, Henry A. Marsh, 
Samuel S. Green, J. H. Walker, W. E. Rice, and Members of the City 
Government. 

SECOND DIVISION. 



Marshal, Major Nathan Taylor.f 

Assistant Marshals, Capt. C. N. Hair.f Dr. W. H. Sears, Horace W. Willson. 

Worcester Brass Baud, 23 pieces, L. D. Waters, leader. 

Worcester Uniformed Degree Camp, No. 3, I. O. O. F., 50 men, John W. 
Hadley.t Commander. 

Wachusett Encampment, No. 10, I. O. O. F., 40 men, Forbes B. Fay, Chief 
Captain ; F. P. Larkin, Sub-Captain. 

Mt. Vernon Encampment, No. 53, I. O. O. F., 34 men, B. O. Wellmau, 
Commander; Waldo Vinton, Assistant. 



THE PROCESSION. 101 

Qainsigamond Lodge, No. 43, I. O. O. F., 32 men, George F. Brooks, 
Marshal; Walter Gates, Assistant Marshal. 

Worcester Lodge, No. 50 ; Central Lodge, No. 168, and Ridgely Lodge. No. 

112, I. O. O. F., 110 men, John F. Adams, Marshal; F. W. Blenus 

and George A. Underwood, Assistant Marshals. 

Blake Lodge, No. 49, Knights of Pythias, 45 men, George W. Bemis, Captain ; 
A. W. Cunningham, 1st Lieutenant; W. A. Newgent, 2d Lieutenant. 

Damascus Lodge, No. 51, Knights of Pythias, 50 men; F. S. Montgomery, 
Captain; A. B. Spink, 1st Lieutenant. 

Integrity Lodge, No. 1768, G. U. O. F., 20 men; Daniel Edwards, Marshal. 

First Regiment, M. V. M., Drum and Fife Corps, 23 men; J. W. Clarke, 

Drum Major. 

Prince Consort Lodge, No. 29, Sons of St. George, and St. Andrews' Mutual 

Benefit Society, 200 meu; Robert Hale, President; Mark Froom, 

Marshal ; Isaac E. Evons, George Palmer, Assistants. 

High School Drum Corp.s, 12 drums. 

Worcester High School Battalion, 250 boys; Principal, A. S. Roe, 
Commanding. 

Co. A, Captain, E. Hopkins; 1st Lieutenant, H. C. Bemis; 2d Lieutenant, 
P. F. Gildea; 1st Sergeant, R. C. Walbridge. 

Co. B, Captain, C. E. Burbank; 1st Lieutenant, N. J. Chandley; 2d Lieu- 
tenant, N. C. Reyes ; 1st Sergeant, F. E. Buxton. 

Co. C, Captain, H. F. Blood; 1st Lieutenant, E. F. Garvey; 2d Lieutenant, 
H. M. Blackmer; 1st Sergeant, L. E. Ware. 

Co. D, Captain, H. Y. FoUett; 1st Lieutenant, J. G. Barri ; 2d Lieutenant, 
M. F. Burns; 1st Sergeant, J. W. Dryden. 

Millbury Street Grammar School, 30 boys; Wm. McCarthy, Captain; Dennis 
Shea, 1st Lieutenant; John McGunn, 2d Lieutenant. 

Belmont Street Grammar School, 25 boys ; George Hill, Captain ; Philip Daly, 
1st Lieutenant; William Williams, 2d Lieutenant. 

Dix Street Grammar School, 25 boys; Paul Bronner, Captain; George Burr, 
1st Lieutenant; J. Daly, 2d Lieutenant. 

Washington Street Grammar School, 30 boys; W. B. Hoyt, Captain; 
J. Lamson, 1st Lieutenant; H. Sibley, 2d Lieutenant. 

Ledge Street Grammar School, 30 boys ; William Gilf oyle. Captain ; Charles 
Whitney, 1st Lieutenant; D. Doyle, 2d Lieutenant. 

Iroquois Tribe, Improved Order of Red Men, 50 men ; E. H. Dunbar, Marshal. 



102 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

THIRD DIVISION. 

Marshal, Andrew Athy. 
Assistant Marshals, Williani Hickey.t B. H. McMalion, P. J. Quinn. 

Staff. 
Rev. J. J. McCoy, Chaplain ; Dr. T. A. O'Callaghan, Surgeon 

Aids. 

Edward Kearns, John Mulvey, John Maguire, 
T. J. O'Keefe. 

American Brass Band, Natick, 24 pieces, J. M. Floekton, leader. 

Knights of Father Mathew, 30 men ; James Eaton, Captain ; P. M. O'Brien, 
1st Lieutenant; Owen Gilrain, 2d Lieutenant. 

Father Mathew Total Abstinence Society, 200 men; Timothy J. Murphy, 

Marshal. 

Irish Catholic Benevolent Union, 40 men; Jere. Murphy, Marshal; William 
J. Reagan, William Harper, James McGinnis, Assistants. 

St. John's Drum Corps, M. Gleason, Drum Major, 11 men. 

St. John's Temperance Guild, 100 men; E. J. Galvin, President; 
J. J. McCloskey, Vice President. 

Leicester Cornet Band, 22 pieces, L. White, leader. 

A. O. H. Guaids of Worcester, 60 men ; Martin Tracy, Captain ; 
J. J. Milan, 1st Lieutenant. 

Milford Brass Band, 18 pieces, T. W. Kean, leader. 

Ancient Order of Hibernians, No. 7, of Milford, 40 men ; James F. Stiatton, 

Commander. 

Ancient Order of Hibernians, Worcester, four divisions, 200 men ; John 

Mulvey, Marshal; W. A. Carpenter, John Burns, John F. Grey, 

Thomas Moran, R. O'Brien, Side Marshals. 

Volunteers of '82, 50 men mouulL-d ; William E. Griffin, Commander; J. F. 
Quinn, Captain Co. A ; P. F. Ryan, Captain Co. B. 



FOURTH DIVISION 



Marshal, Captain George L. Allen. 

Assistant Marshals, Captain Levi Lincoln, t Lieut. Henry S. Knight, 
Charles H. Bowker. 

Worcester Cadet Band, 23 pieces, E. D. Ingraham, leader. 



!■ 



I 






THE PROCESSION. 103 

Garde Lafayette, 29 men, Charles Wilmot, Captain. 

St. Jean Baptiste Society, 400 men ; A. F. Lamoareux, Marshal ; 
Eli Bouchard, Assistant Marshal. 

Reform Club, 25 men; Edward Henshaw, Marshal; Joseph Tremer, 
Assistant Marshal. 

Stationary Engineers, 25 men; George Weir, Engineer; F. W. Mnnroe, 

Assistant Engineer. 

Viking Council Order of Mystic Brothers, 64 men; Leonard Wickins, 
Marshal; C. W. Bildt, Eric Kuutsson, Captains. 

Boston Cadet Band, 30 pieces, J. Thomas Baldwin, leader. 

German Societies, 80 men; C. C. Schwartz, Marshal; Turners, Christian 

Schencker, Assistant Marslial; Frohsinn, William Lichtenfelts, 

Assistant Marshal; Einigkeit No. 44, D. O. H., George 

Krumsick, Assistant Marshal ; Independent Order 

Sons of Benjamin, Max Feiga, Assistant 

Marshal. 

Worcester County Mechanics Association, 3 carriages; Samuel E. Hildreth, 

President; Samuel Winslow, Vice-President; Wm. A. Smith, Clerk; 

Edwin T. Marble, Thomas J. Hastings, f John B. Goodell.f 

James E. Fuller, Charles H. Morgan, Milton P. 

Higgins, Fred. H. Daniels, Trustees; Edwin 

Morse, Ex-President. 

Worcester Agricultural Society, 3 carnages; James W. Stockwell, of Sutton, 

Vice-President; George H. Estabrook, Secretary; Wm. S. Lincoln, 

Chas. E. Miles, of Boston, and J. A. Fayerweather, of 

Westboro, Ex-Presidents ; 

O. B. Hadwen, C. L. Hartshorn, Wm. T. Merriflcld, Harvey 

Dodge, of Sutton, Trustees; 

H. H. Chamberlin, Bouum Nye, of North Brookfield, 

Members, the latter in his 90th year, and who 

attended the first meeting of the 

Society in 1818. 

Society of Antiquity, 2 carriages; Samuel E. Staples, Ex-President; Rev. 
T. E. St. John, Daniel Seagrave, Henry F. Stedman, Thomas A. Dickinson, 
Franklin P. Rice and E. Francis Thompson. 

Natives of Maine, A. P. Marble, President; Sons of New Hampshire, Addison 

Palmer. President; Sons of Vermont. Charles G. Parker, President, 

and George Fisher, Secretary. 



104 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

Worcester Grange, Patrons of Husbandry, HO mounted men and 7 teams; 

Worthy Master, F. A. Harrington as Chief Marsliul ; W. I. Allen, 

Aide-de-Camp ; Overseer, H. J. Allen ; Lecturer, J. E. Goodell ; 

Steward, Charles E. Bond; Assistant Steward, L. .1. 

Kendall; Chaplain, J. A. Bancroft ; Treasurer, 

A. D. Flagg; Color Bearer, A. D. Perry. 

Car of Flora. 

Car of Pomona. 

Car of Ceres. 

FoDR Degree Cabs : 

First. — Laborer and Maid. 

Second — Cultivator and Shepherdess. 

Third — Harvester and Gleaner. 

Fourth — Husbandman and Matron. 

FIFTH DIVISION. 

Marlboro Brass Band, 25 pieces, A. D. Baker, leader. 

-Marshal, Chief Engineer Siraon E. Combs; Assistant Marshals, Assistant 

Engineers William Bropliy, George S Coleman, Edwin L. Vaughn, 

Charles M. Mills. 

Carriages, containing Henry W. Miller, Tilley Raymond, L. R. Hudson, Erastus 

N. Holmes, A. B. Lovell, Alvin T. Burgess, James L. Morse and 

Eli Fairbanks, Ex-Engineers of the Department. 

Ex-Firemen, 75 men, with hand engine; Samuel H. Day, Korenian. 

Insurance Fire Patrol, 2 horses; Hiram R. Williamson, Captain. 

Alert Hose, No. 1, 2 horses; Henry Robbius, Foreman. 

Protector Hose, No. 7, 2 horses; William A. Adams. Foreman. 

Steamer Gov. Lincoln, No. 1, 4 horses; John J. Adams, Foreman. 

Steamer No. 1 Hose Carriage, 2 horses. 

Hook and Ladder, J. W. Loring, No. 1, i horses; J. H. Perkins. Foreman. 

Steamer A. B. Lovell, No. 2, 4 horses; John Wheaton, Foreman. 

Steamer No. 2 Hose Carriage, 2 horses. 

Independent Hose, No. 3, 2 horses; John Carthy, Foreman. 

Ocean Hose, No. 2, 2 horses ; David Boland, Foreman. 

Steamer S. E. Combs, No. 3, 6 horses; Alvin Prouty, Forem.m. 

Steamer No. 3 Hose Carriage, 2 hoi'ses. 

Worcester Cornet Band, 21 pieces, C. G. Marcy, leader. 

Rapid Hose, No. 8, 2 horses; C. A. Humes, Foreman. 

Chemical Extinguisher, No. 1, 2 horses; William Flynn, Foreman. 

Tiger Hose, No. 6, 2 horses ; F. F. Burbank, Foreman. 



THE PROCESSION. 105 

Steamer Rapid No. 4, 4 horses. 

Niagara Hose, No. 4, 2 horses; A. J. Dresser, Foreman. 

Vankee Hose, No. 5, 2 horses; Cliflbrd O. Lamb, Foreman. 

Good Will Hook and Ladder, No. 2, 4 liorscs; John P. Fay, Foreman. 

There were so many intere.sting features of the procession, 
and each division was so good in itself, that particular men- 
tion of any might be considered invidious, but by general 
consent the special features of the parade (admitted on all 
hands to have been the best appearing and most skilfully 
handled military and civic pageant ever seen in Worcester), 
were the Grangers' representation and the Fire Department 
decorations. 

The Worcester Grange, Patrons of Hu.sbandrv, had 110 
mounted men and seven cars in line, eacli car drawn by 
four horses. On the breasts of the horses were shields, 
inscribed " Patrons of Husbandry. Worcester Grange No. 
22.' These officers, accompanied with banners, preceded 
the cars : Master, Francis A. Harrington ; Overseer, H. J. 
Allen: Lecturer, J. E. Goodell : Chaplain, John A. Ban- 
croft; Steward, Charles E. Bond; Assistant Steward, L.J. 
Kendall ; Treasurer, A. D. Flagg. 

The following is the description of these pageants, as given 
in the Daily Spy : 

"The first car, representing Flora, Goddess of Flowers, was elaborately 
decorated, and Flora, Mrs. Hartley Wadswonh, with two attendants, was 
seated on a raised platform. Each was tastefully attired. The motto was, 
' To me belong the Forest, the Garden, and their Garlands of Flowers.' The 
second car, representing Pomona, Goddess of Fruits, had a canopy top, with 
red, gold and green trimmings. At each corner was a design of fruit and 
berries, while the canopy was hung with grapes and light baskets of f rnits, 
representing an arbor. Pomona, Miss Mary A. E. Adams, with two attendants, 
occupied an elevated position. On her right stood a basket of fruit, and on 
her left a cornucopia rtlled and decorated with fruit. Tlie motto was, ' The 
luscious product of the Orchard and Frnit Garden are mine.' 

" Ceres, Goddess of Grains, was represented by Miss Emma Midgley, with 
two attendants. The car displayed a great amount of skill and labor in 
arrangement. The cover, thatched with several varieties of grain in the 
straw, was suspended by a ridgepole of traces of corn, and at each corner 
stood a sheaf of grain. Ceres sat on a mound made of bags of rye, oats, 
barley and wheat, on the top of which was a bag of corn inscribed, ' Corn is 
King.' The motto was, 'My Tribute is the Golden Grain." 



106 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

"Next ciiiiic four allegorical cars, representing the degrees of the order as 
well as the difl'erent stages of agriculture. The first was built in the form of 
a log cabin, with open sides. In front stood a woodman with an axe, resting 
on a felled tree, and a plowman resting on a plow. .\t the rear .sat women at 
the spinning-wlieel, the churn and other implements of housewifery. The 
inscriptions were : ' Faith — Pioneer of Civilization ; First in Clearing the 
Field and Breaking the Sod.' 

" The second, representing Spring and seed time, was covered with ever- 
greens, and men were at work planting and sowing. At the rear sat a 
shepherdess on a mound of rocks and grasses tending two lambs. Her 
attendant, a little girl, was kept busy feeding the pets. The motto was : 
' Hope— He that Tilleth the Land shall be Satisfied with Bread." 

"The third represented a harvest scene, the front showing a field of 
standing grain with reapers and gleaners, the former resting on a rustic 
fence, with sickle and cradle, and the latter sealed on bundles of grain with 
gleanings in their laps. At the rear was a fine collection of the products of 
the fields— grains, vegetables and fruits. The motto was: 'Charity — 
Industry Rewarded. Thanks to God, who hath Blessed the Sod and Crowns 
the harvest Land.' 

"The fourth was a home scene, with a house of the olden style, with porch 
in front, chimney and fireplace in the rear, and sides open ; the object being 
to represent a farmer's comfortable home, with the surroundings of a 
numerous family. The emblem was: 'Fidelity, the Hope of the People. 
As are the Homes so is the Nation.' There were about 150 persons in the 
line. It was the first attempt of anything of the kind in the history of the 
order, and those who planned and executed the work — especially Mr. James 
Draper, State Master, Francis A. Harrington, M;ister of the Worcester 
Grange, and George H. Rice, Chairman of the Bi-Centennial Committee on 
the part of the Grange — are to be congratulated on the success of the display. 

" Of much admired appearance was the Fire Department, its well kept and 
brightly polished apparatus being seen gaily decorated with flowers, ever- 
green and bunting. The Fire Patrol wagon was covered with bunting and 
evergreen, and on a pedestal in the centre was perched a handsome golden 
ea^le. Hose No. 1 was covered with a canopy of evergreen and flowers, an 
elegant floral wreath being suspended from the centre. Protector Hose was 
covered with streamers of red, white and blue, tastefully gathered around an 
easel on which was a picture of the Chief Engineer. Steamer Gov. Lincoln 
was trimmed with flowers and the national colors, and the long sides of 
Hook and Ladder No. 1 wore covered with the stars and stripes. Steamer 
No. 2 Hose Carriage was a mass of flowers and evergreen. The Extinguisher 
was covered with a handsome floral canopy, and on .Steamer No. 3 the name 
was handsomely wrought in an elaborate floral design. The tiger of old 
times surmounted the decorations of Hose No. G, and all the other pieces of 
apparatus were handsomely decorated with the national colors and handsome 
flowers." 

The full and very creditable di-splay by our adopted 
citizens of various nationalities was very generally commented 



THE PROCESSION. 107 

upon, they adding largely to the success of the parade. 
There were over 700 Irish, about 400 French and 200 
Germans and Swedes in the Third and Fourth Divisions. 

As is usual on such occasions in Worcester, the local 
militia turned out in good numbers and with the Grand Army, 
the Sons of Veterans and the Irish military organizations 
made an important part of the procession. 

As indicating the length of the procession, it may be stated 
that when the head of the column turned into Front Street, 
the rear was resting on Chatham, near Main Street, on its 
march towards May Street. This would make the length of 
the procession about two miles. 

After the parade the invited guests dined with the members 
of the Reception Committee at the Bay State House. Mayor 
Reed presided, and after the dinner short congratulatory 
speeches were made by Gov. Robinson, Congressman Rice, 
Mayor Doyle of Providence, Mayor Lewis of New Haven, 
and Mayor Donovan of Lowell. The Continentals gave a 
dinner to their honorary staff at the Lincoln House. 

The band concerts in the afternoon were a source of 
pleasure to thousands, and on the Common was gathered one 
of the largest crowds ever seen there. 

The artillery drill by Battery B at the Fair Grounds was to 
many a most interesting event, and was witnessed by a large 
crowd. 

The balloon ascension proved a popular feature and was 
witnessed by thousands of spectators. Every point of advan- 
tage was seized upon at an early hour. A large iron pipe 
from the gas works led to the vacant lot on the corner of 
Sigel Street and Quinsigamond Avenue, in the south part of 
the city, and the filling of the monster air ship began at 10.30 
in the morning. Shortly before 3 o'clock the two Aliens, 
James and James K., and Dr. W. H. Raymenton entered the 
basket. At 3 o'clock the word was given, but it was found 
sufficient buoyancy was lacking ; bag after bag of ballast was 
thrown out, until at 3.01 the word was again given, the rope 
was cast off, and the party started on their voyage amid the 



108 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

cheers of the crowd. It did not move directly up, however, 
but drifted slowly away to the south-east, rising gradually. 
Long streamers were cast oft" and their lazy movements 
showed the extreme lightness of the breeze. After a few 
hours' flight the balloon came down in an open tield owned 
by C. A. & S. M. Wheelock, about one mile from the centre 
of the town of Uxbridge. 

THE DRKSS PAEADE. 

In the afternoon at 4.30 the several military organizations 
united in a dress parade on the Common. The parade was 
witnessed by fully ten thousand people. When the com- 
mands began to arrive the crowd was so great that the St. 
John's Cadets had to clear a space, and the police set ropes, 
but they were soon broken down. After a hard struggle a 
sufficient space was cleared, and the Governor's Foot Guard 
of Hartford, Company F, Second Regiment, of Gardner, tlie 
Light Infantry, and the City Guards marched on to the 
grounds. Major E. R. Shumway was in command of the 
parade, and Lieut. James Early acting Adjutant. The line 
was quickly formed with the Infantry upon the right, and the 
St. John's Cadets upon the left. The Worcester Brass Band 
and Colt's Band of Hartford consolidated and played finely 
as they marched down the line and back. The men stood 
steady, and in the manual were excellent, the Cadets coming 
in for mucin praise. The parade was witnessed by Gen. 
Josiah Pickett, Chief Marshal of the day, and his Staft", the 
officers of the Continentals accompanied by their guests, the 
Staff' of the Foot Guard, and the officers of the Ancient and 
Honorable Artillery, besides many other military men. It 
was a most fitting close to the military exercises of the day, 
and the applause was long and loud, as the parade was 
dismissed. 

One feature of the day, and to most of our citizens an 
unexpected pleasure, was the presence of the Governor's 
Foot Guard, of Hartford, Conn., who, with the Worcester 



THE PROCESSION. 109 

Continentals, formed the escort of the Chief Marshal. The 
Foot Guard was organized in 1771, and their uniform is 
like that of the British Grenadier of that period, scarlet 
coats, turned up with black, silver trimmings, butf cassimere 
waistcoat and breeches, and bearskin hats ; this formed a 
pleasing contrast with the blue and buff uniform of the 
Continentals. 

THE FIREWORKS. 

Last on the programme of the celebration of the day was 
the exhibition of fireworks, which took place in the evening 
on Newton Hill, opposite Elm Park. 

Toward o'clock the people began to arrive in multitudes, 
and the space reserved for people on foot was roped off by 
the police. It was all that part of the Boulevard between 
Pleasant Street and the centre of Elm Park. The crowd 
soon became impassable, and the side streets were rapidly 
filled up. The Park was very handsomely illuminated by 
numerous lanterns, and at the top of the flagstaff' was an 
immense star. Nearly every residence upon Elm Street, and 
many upon the adjacent streets, were elegantly illuminated, 
and colored fires were burned at intervals. The Worcester 
Brass Band and the Cadet Band were placed at the disposal 
of the Committee, and they were posted at the Park and on 
the Boulevard, each giving fine concerts. The members of 
the Worcester Brass Brass were kindly entertained by the 
people living near where they were stationed. By seven 
o'clock, the time for the starting of the display, it was estimated 
that there were over thirty thousand people in the vicinity, 
and thousands viewed the sight from the surrounding hills and 
from the residences on the west side. At the corner of Elm 
and Agricultural Streets the Committee in charge had built 
a platform for their guests, the members of the City Govern- 
ment, the General Committee, and the press ; and these, with 
their families, completely filled the 250 seats. At seven 



110 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

o'clock several fire balloons were sent up, some of them 
discharging Roman candles, and a minute later the general 
display began, and lasted for two hours, and it was the finest 
pyrotechnic display ever seen in this vicinity. All the pieces 
were perfect and went off on time. The display began by 
the discharge of a large bomb, followed by an illumination, 
displaying a succession of colored lights suspended in the air. 
There were 59 pieces in all. and although the air was very 
cold the crowd remained until the final discharge of 400 
rockets in a bouquet, and "Good Night" appeared in large 
letters. The set pieces were very elaborate. The crowd 
were enthusiastic at the close, and cheered loudly. After the 
display a vote of thanks was passed to Mr. Tilton, the pyro- 
technist, for the prompt and efficient manner in which he 
carried out his part of the contract. 

GENERAL NOTES. 

The managers of the several railroads entering the city 
prepared themselves to furnish extraordinary accommodations 
to the crowd of visitors. Their arrangements provided for 
excursion tickets at reduced rates on all the roads, and the 
running of special trains. 

The only survivors of the first City Government of Worces- 
ter, 1848, all among the honored guests of the city, were 
Aldermen James S. Woodworth, and Councilmen Daniel 
Goddard (since deceased), William T. Merrifield and Calvin 
Foster. 

In concluding the notes of the second and closing day of 
the celebration, it deserves repetition that the arrangements 
from beginning to end were not only perfect, but were carried 
through without friction and without the slightest delay, the 
great procession moving promptly on time, the balloon being 
released one minute after the time announced, and the 
pyrotechnic display beginning while the clocks were striking 
the hour named. 



THE PROCESSION. HI 

The literature of the Bi-Centennial received a notable and 
worthy addition in a sixteen-page antique paper issued from 
the press of F. S. Blanchard & Co., and called "Worcester 
Bi-Centennial." It gave a brief but well-written sketch of 
the history of the beginning of the Pakachoag settlement 
and the leading events of the history of the city, its most 
notable feature being the illustrations, which included a fac- 
simile of the original order of the General Court giving the 
new town the name of Worcester, a fac-simile of a poster 
soliciting recruits to the Continental Arm}-, a bird"s-eye view 
of the city in 1844, views of the Old South Meeting-house, 
Town Hall in 1841, the old U. S. Hotel, the Lunatic Asylum 
in 1831, excellent portraits of Gov. Levi Lincoln, Mavor 
Reed and Ichabod Washburn, a view of Main Street in 1836, 
the original Wire Mill in 1834, the Rev. Isaac Burr house, 
built 1724, and a number of other buildings of note of the 
past and present. The paper has a well-executed heading of 
most appropriate design, and gave a fac-simile page of Isaiah 
Thomas's Massachusetts Spy of Julv, 1776. It is printed 
on old style type and antique paper, the general effect thus 
produced being quite ancient. 



; 



HISTORICAL NOTES. 



It has been thought proper to present a few pages of history 
bearing directly upon that period in the early settlement of Worcester 
which is so immediately associated with the event we have just 
celebrated. It is taken from a contribution to local history, prepared 
for and read before the Worcester Society of Anti(iuity, December 
16th, 1884. 

The first book of ' ' Records of the Proprietors " seems to be the 
most natural source from whence to draw the history of the early 
settlement of Worcester. That record, however, proves to be 
defective and quite incomplete, yet there are in fair state of preserva- 
tion twenty-eight closely written pages, covering the period of the 
early attempts in establishing a Plantation near Quiusigamond Ponds, 
beginning with the entry of May loth, 1G67, at which time the 
General Court appointed Capt. Daniel Gookin,i Capt. Edward John- 
son, Samuel Andrew and Andrew Belcher, Senior, a committee ^ to 
view the premises and see if it would be a suitable place to establish 
a village. From this first entry down to November 2fith, 1686, the 
record appears to be in the hand-writing of Major-Geueral Gookin, 
at whose house at Cambridge the early meetings of the committee 
for settling the town may have been held. It seems strange that the 
book bears no entries in the handwriting of either Capt. Daniel 
Henchman or Capt. John Wing, the former having full management 
of the settlement from 1683 until his death, October 15, 1685, and 
the latter, who soon after, perhaps not until after the death of 
Major-General Gookin, which occurred March 19, 1687, was chosen 
Town Clerk, and continued to conduct the affairs of the village until 
his death, February 22, 1703. The record also ap])ears to have 
been compiled from detached documents collected during the years 
1685 and 1686. 

It is not intended to give here a complete account of the early 



1 Afterwards appointed a Major-General. 

2 This was the second committee appointed. The first one for several reasons 
failed to act. 

9 



114 



BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



settlemeuts of Worcester. To mauy readers the printed record is 
quite familiar, so tliat we sliall toucli liglitly, and in a general way, 
the history as a whole, while attempting at the same time to bring 
out matters of special interest that hitheito have been quite obscure 
or wholly unknown to the general reader. 

Six years and moi'e had been spent by the several committees 
appointed by the General Court in the preliininai'y i)reparation for 
the establishment of a Plantation near Quinsigamond. The year 
1673 found lots granted to 32 persons and recorded in the Town 
Book. Thus far the meetings of the committee to settle the planta- 
tion had been held at Cambridge, and the town in prospect was as 
yet only on paper; out of the 32 persons before mentioned only 14 
perfected their titles l)y paying to the committee their share of the 
expense thus far incurred in settling the town, which also included 
the Indian pui'chase money. At this time the principal portion of 
the lots were located side by side north of and fronting on the 
Connecticut road, extending from the head of Lake Quinsigamond 
westerly, to what is now Adams Square or nearly to Mill Brook. 

The names of the 32 persons who 2^^'oposed to settle in 1G73 were: 
Daniel Gookin, Senior, Dr. Lkonard Hoaer, Joshua Bigelow, 



John Fay, 

John Shaw, 

Joseph Waight, 

John Provender, 

Samuel Bkigham, 

Gershom Eams, 

Thomas Grover, 

John Paul, 

Joel Jenkins, 

Joseph Beamis, 
From the Town Book we learn that of the above 
Daniel Gookin, Symon Meylin, Philip Atwood, 

Thomas Brown, 

Thomas Grover, 

Thomas Prentice, 

Phinehas Upham, 
The last named (Peter Goulding) having purchased the claim of 
Benj. Crane, making fourteen who became actual proprietors or 
landowners in the town. How many of these persons erected dwell- 
ings upon their lots is not at this time of writing an easy matter to 



Samuel, his son, 
Daniel Henchman, 
Ephraim Curtis, 
John Curtis, 
Thomas Brown, 
Thomas Hall, 
Benjamin Crane, 
Symon Meylin, 
Richard Dana, 
Jacob Dana, 



Samuel Gookin, 
Daniel Henchman, 
Thomas Hall, 
Ephraim Curtis, 



Michael Fleg, 
Thomas Prentice, 
Ben.iamin Web, 
Phinehas Upham, 
Philip Atwood, 
Trial Newberry, 
AVm. Taylor, 
Jonathan Treadaway, 
Wm. Adams. 



Joseph Waight, 
John Provender, 
Peter Goulding. 



This drawing is designed to illustrate ttie relative positions of liome-Iots. The number on the 
map corresponding with the one set ag;iinst the name below will indicate the location occupied 
by that person. 



1 


Gershom Earns. 


Ifi 


Maj.-Gen. Daniel Gookin 


2 


Samuel Brighara. 


17-24 


Thomas Hall. 


3 


John Provender. 


18 


Thomas Grover. 


1 


Jcseph Waight. 


19 


.John Paul. 


5 


John Shaw. 


20 


Joel Jenkins. 


6 


John Fiiy. 


21 


Joseph Beamis. 


7 


John Curtis. 


22 


Joshua Bigelow. 


S 


Dr. Leonard Hoarr. 


23 


Michael Fleg. 


9 


Capt. Daniel Henchman. 


25 


Benjamin Crane. 


10 


Ephraini Curtis. 


26 


Capt. Thomas Prentice. 


11 


Thomas l5rown. 


27 


Benjamin Web. 


12 


Jacob Dana. 


2S 


Phinehas Upham. 


13 


IJichard Dana. 


29 


Philip Atwood. 


U 


Symon Meyliu. 


30 


Trial Newberry. 


15 


Samuel Gookin. 


31 


Minister's lot. " 








Diatcn by E. B. Crane. 



VLAN or 

VMORCESTER 
I673TOI67S: 



i 



i 



HISTORICAL NOTES. 115 

decide; we are coutident, however, that liouses were built by the 
committee, Ephraim Curtis and Tliomas Brown. As it appears that 
the owner of a lot could have three years after thegrautand confirma- 
tion of his title, and acceptance of lot and payment of chai-ges, in 
which to make improvements, and as July 8tli, 1673, seems to be the 
earliest date of surveying and locating the lots, it is very doubtful 
if any other buildings were completed previous to the war with 
King Philip. 

The Committee for settling the New Plantation received their 
appointment by the General Court, October 24, 1668, and was 
composed of Cai)t. Daniel Gookiu, Capt. Thomas Prentice, Mr. 
Daniel Henchman and Lieut. Richard Beeres. That the work was 
placed in the hands of an able and efticient committee, all ,wbo are 
familiar with the early records of the Massachusetts Bay Colony will 
admit. This committee, under the leadership of Capt. Daniel 
Gookiu. had taken possession of this tract of land for the buildino- 
of a town and constructed a house "little beyond the Brook," 
l)revious to October 8, 1673. This with the houses of Epin-aim 
Curtis and Thomas Brown completed the year following, located on 
the north side of the country road between the head of Lake Quinsiga- 
mond and what is now Adams Square, comprise all the houses of 
which we have record as standing previous to the outbreak among 
the Indians in the summer of 1675, when the place was abandoned. 
And in December of that year the buildings were destroyed by the 
Indians. The death of King Philip in August, 1676, brought a 
cessation of hostilities with the Indians, and the committee again 
put forth their endeavors to re-settle the town, but with little success. 
In October, 1682, the General Court gave notice that unless some, 
decided advance was soon made the place would be forfeited. Captain, 
now Major-Gencral, Daniel Gookiu was too important a personage 
to be spared from the seat of government, and it was arranged that 
Mr. Henchman, now Capt. Daniel Henchman, should undertake the 
personal superintendence of the settlement. A re-survey of the town- 
ship was made by Samuel Andrew in 1683 and a few log houses 
erected; and April 1st, 1684, Capt. Henchman was requested by 
the General Court to see that the inhabitants at the Plantation of 
Quiusigamond do not neglect the proper observance of the Sabbath, 
until they may be able to call and maintain a learned, pious, and 
orthodox minister. 

It will be noticed on examination that not more than five persons, 



116 



BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



including two members of the committee, appear as settlers of the 
town in 1683 and 1684 that were proprietors in 1673 and 1674, also 
that the locations selected are quite different from those made at 
the first settlement and being far more widely scattered, but the plan 
advanced by Capt. Henchman provided for such a thinly-scattered 
population, inasmuch as every settler was expected to have a hut-lot 
six rods square within the citadel, on which he was to erect a small 
house, into which in case of an attack by the Indians each settler could 
retire for safety and defence. This citadel was a plat of ground 
about one-half mile square located on Mill Brook, the north line- 
being the top of Prospect Hill, what is now Messinger Hill, extend- 
ing south nearly to Lincoln Square. There was a road six rods wide 
located about the citadel, as well as streets two and in some instances 
three rods wide, passing through between the lots. Those who 
should erect a block-house or place of defence " on a hill near unto the 
citadel " were to be ' ' allowed towards the work " l)y the committee; and 
also to retain his lot in the citadel. Those who should prefer to 
build on their farm-lots might do so, by placing their houses, two 
or more of them, withiu rausket-shot of each other. That there was 
a block-house near the summit of Messinger Hill is quite probable, 
it being the most natural location within the limits of the citadel for 
such a building, and from which a watch over the little collection of 
toiling villagers might be kept. The outlook from this hill no doubt 
suggested the name, Prospect Hill. As it is rather difficult to 
separate with certainty the names of the proprietors from the persons 
who were living here in 1684 and 1685. I will uame the full list so 
far as able : 

Daniel Henchman and two 
servants, — Will, a colored 
man, and Christopher Read, 

Daniel Gookin, 

Thos. Prentice, 

John Wing, 

Nathaniel Henchman, 

Ephraim Curtis, 

Geo. Danson, 

Isaac Tomlin, 

Geo. Ripley, 



Digory Serjent,' 
Geo. Rosbury,- 
Wm. Weeks, 
Isaac George, 
Thos. Allerton,^ 
James Butler, 
Thomas Hall, 
Alexander Bogell, 
Chas. Williams, 
Matthew Tomlin, 
Adam Winthrop, 



'The orii^in of this name is Serjeant, and it has been variously corrupted into 
Serjent, Sergeant. Sergont, Sarjent, Sarjant, Sarjeaunt, Sargent, Sargant, Sargeant. 
2 This name is also found spelled Rosbrough and Rosebrough. 
8 Afterwards spelled Atherton. 



This drawing is designed to illustrate the relative positions of home-lots. The number on the 
map correspouding with the one set against the name below will indicate the location occupied 
by that person. 



1 


Epliraim Curtis. 


11 


Bridget Usher. 


21 


Thomas Hall. 


2 


Tlionias Brown. 


12 


Ephraim Curtis heirs. 


22 


Peter Gouldiug. 


3 


Daniel Turell. 


1.3 


Daniel Henchman. 


23 


James Butler. 


i 


Samuel Daniel. 


14 


Daniel Gookin. 


2-t 


Thomas AUerton. 


5-29 


John Wing. 


1.5 


Digory Serjent. 


2.5 


Isaac George. 


6 


George Dansou. 


1(! 


Charles "Williams. 


26 


William Weeks. 


1 


Samuel Simpson. 


17 


George Ripley. 


27 


Isaac Bull. 


8 


Adam Winthrop. 


IS 


William Paine. 


28 


George Rosbury. 


9 


Mr. Peirpoiut. 


19 


James Holmes. 


30 


John Wing's Mills. 


10 


Hezekiah Usher. 


20 


Alexander Bogell. 









' VLAN OF 
WORCESTER 
1683 TO /68S: 



Brawn by E. B. Crane. 



HISTORICAL NOTES. 117 

Peter Goulding, Samuel Daniel, 

Hezekiah Usher, Geo. Pyke, 

Mrs. Bridget Usher, Caleb Sawyer, 

Thomas Brown, John Turner, 

Isaac Hull, James Ford, 

James Holmes, Benjamin Eaton, 

Wm. Paine, Thomas Crosby and four 

Daniel Turell, soldiers who served under 

him as a guard for the town. There seems to be little doubt 
but that twenty-eight of the above thirty-six named persons, not 
including the five soldiers, were residents of the town at the time 
indicated either as land owners or employed by them. Six of the 
proprietors named, who apparently did not reside here, were Daniel 
Gookin, Thos. Prentice, Geo. Danson, Hezekiah Usher, Adam 
Winthrop and Bridget Usher, although they may have been repre- 
sented by agents. 

The death of Lieut. Beeres in 1675, had caused a vacancy in the 
committee, and on petition from the remaining members to the 
General Court, October lo, 1G84, the place was filled by the choice 
of Mr. Adam Winthrop, and October 21st, six days later, the com- 
mittee was enlarged by the addition of Capt. John Wing. 

In the spring of 1 684 the little hamlet had grown to a size sufficient 
to require not only some form of religious service to be held, but 
there was need of an inn for the accommodation of travelers ; conse- 
quently Nathaniel Henchman, a son of the captain, was licensed by 
the General Court to "keep such a house and to sell and furnish 
travelers as well as the inhabitants with rum or other strong waters 
in pint or quart bottles but not to retail or allow tipling in his 
house." Thomas Brown had been granted a similar license on 
December 1.5th, 1674, at the previous or first settlement, and the 
license to Mr. Henchman was the first granted since the second 
settlement. After the death of Capt. Daniel Henchman it is quite 
probable that Capt. John Wing kept an inn here, as he was then the 
leading man of the towu and haviug the sympathy and confidence of 
the larger portion of the inhabitants. The house must have been 
standing in 1716, it doubtless haviug been put in repair, for Judge 
Samuel Sewall records haviug dined at Wing's old house in Worcester 
that year, on his way to Springfield. The house was certainly 
standing in 1702, for Capt. Wing's will mentions his Frame House ' 



iThis was probably the bouse where Capt. Tbos. liovve and his soldiers stopped 
the night before they found Digory Serjeut lying dead on the floor of his house. 



118 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

and 400 acres of laud in Worcester, which was subsequently deeded 
by his son Cord to Messrs. Palmer, Oulton and others. 

In June, 1684, it was found necessary to have some of the minor 
town oflScers appointed, and the General Court on the 17th of tliat 
montli, on motion of the committee, " ordered that Wm. Weeks be 
constable for the plantation for the year next insuiug and that 
Thomas Allerton is appointed to inspect the fences and order about 
the swine." Thus matters stood until after the death of Capt. Hench- 
man, which occurred October 15, 1685 (just one year after the naming 
of the town). Soon afterward Capt. John Wing was chosen Clerk, 
the date on which the choice was made does not appear, but in 
IMiddlesex Deeds, vol. 13, page 294, can be found a record of George 
Ripley's estate in Worcester "where he hath built a house and barn," 
and John Wing there certifies under date of May 21, 1688, that it is 
"a true copy out of the first book of records kept for the Town of 
Worcester by himself as Clerk chosen by the Inhabitants there." 
This would indicate that some kind of a town meeting had been held 
here previous to the year 1722. 

The controversy between Capt. Wing and George Danson should 
riot be passed without special notice, for next to the contest with tiie 
Indians, tliat gave the inhabitants of the town the most trouble. It 
was the means of dividing tliem into two factious, the majority, how- 
ever, being in sympathy with Capt. Wing. Those who have read 
the first book of records are already aware that Capt. Wing had 
arranged with the committee, of which Capt. Henchman was the 
manager, to erect and maintain the mills, for which he was to have 
a certain amount of land and the exclusive right to all the waters of 
Mill Brook. It also appears that north of the land which had been 
assigned to Wing there was another tract lying between his north 
line and what is now called North Pond and bounded on the east by 
Mill Brook, which Wing hoped to get through subsequent distribu- 
tions or otherwise. But Mr. George Danson, then of Boston, a 
Quaker and a bread-maker, a man of means, wishing to try his hand 
at speculation, was shown this piece of land by Mr. Samuel Daniel ; 
Danson was pleased with the location and applied to Capt. Hench- 
man for a title ; as this land had not really been assigned to any one 
it was perhaps proper tliat the Captain should grant it to Mr. 
Danson; but no sooner did Mr. David Fiske, the town surveyor, 
begin to run out the bounds of that lot, than Geo. Pyke, Thos. Hall, 
Caleb Sawyer, Charles Williams, John Turner with Capt. Wing 
broke his chain, cut out the marks, and for a time prevented the 






HISTORICAL NOTES. 119 

lines from being run ; their proceedings so annoyed Mr. Danson that 
he brought suits in the Middlesex County Court against the above 
named parties for an assault on the 2d day of October, 1685, when 
laying out a parcel or parcels of land at the Town of Worcester, and 
defamhuj the plaintiff's title. The Court ruled that Danson could 
prosecute ouly on one of the two counts. He chose the latter. The 
ease of Dauson vs. Wing was tried first, and resulted iu a verdict for 
Wing with costs. The plaintiff was no more successful in his trial 
against the other parties. This gave Wing encouragement to further 
resist the movements of Danson, which he and two of his friends did 
on the 20th of July, 1686, by again breaking the surveyor's chain 
and otherwise preventing the prosecution of their work. An end to 
the difficulty was reached through the action of a committee appointed 
by the President and Council to regulate the affairs of the settlement 
a?Kl confirm titles to lauds iu Worcester. That committee was 
appointed on the application of John Wing and other proprietors of 
the Town, June 11th, 1686, and consisted of Major Daniel Gookin, 
Capt. Thomas Prentice, Wm. Bond, Capt. Joseph Lynd and Deacon 
•John Hayues. "Any three of them were empowered to act provided 
Major Gookin was one of the three." They were instructed to order 
and regulate all matters relating to the settlement of Worcester, hav- 
ing always respect to the confirmation of those lands that were 
granted, or iu part or all laid out by Capt. Daniel Henchman. 

Soon Mr. Dausou's right was established, not, however, without 
certain restrictions debarring him from erecting corn or saw-mills, or 
in any way interfering with the privileges Capt. Wing might have on 
the stream. 

The record of this litigation, given by Francis E. Blake, Esq., 
throws much valuable light upon the affairs of the Town at that 
period, and furnishes names of the inhabitants of the place not previ- 
ously to be found in our printed records.' 

It also shows that the popular feeling of sympathy was for Captain 
Wing, and that the action of Capt. Henchman in this case was not 
approved either by the majoiity of the inhabitants or by other mem- 
bers of the committee. 

It seems a pity that almost the last public act in this man's life 
should be the means of crushing out the esteem and respect that his 



1 See paper entitled Incidents of the t'irst and Second Settlements of Worcester, 
read before tlie Worcester Society of Antiquity, May 6th, 1884, and printed iu 
Proceedings for tliat year. 



120 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

fellow-townsmen had formerly entertained for him, so that none but 
members of his immediate family, with one or two friends, were 
sufficiently interested to stand at the grave and witness the last sad 
service man can render his fellows. ' 

After Captain Wing assumed the clerkship of the Town, all for a 
time went well, but the constant anxiety and fear from possible 
trouble with the Indians kept the inhabitants so closely confined to 
their fortifications and on the watch for the foe that they were scarcely 
able to cultivate crops sufficient to supply tlieir immediate wants, and 
about the year 1687 Capt. Wing petitioned Gov. Edraond Andros to 
remit the rates of the Town for three or four years for the encourage- 
ment of the young Plantation. We find no record to show that any 
action was taken on this petition. A few years later, apparently 
for the purpose of infusing renewed confidence among the settlers of 
the town, Capt. Wing again petitioned his honor the Governor and 
Council; in reply to which we find the following: "Oct. 25, 1691. 
In answer to Capt. Jno. Wing his pet" ordered that Capt. Penn 
Townsend, Capt. Ephraim Hunt, and deacon John Haynes be aded 
to Capt. John prentice, Mr. Adam Winthrop & Capt. Jno. Wing 
who were appointed to be a comitee for the ordering and selling of 
the plantation called Worcester. Any four of them being fully 
empowered to act in that affair aecordiug to former order of this 
Court." '^ Previous to Capt. Henchman's death, it appears he had 
ordered Thomas Crosby, with four soldiers, from Chelmsford to 
Worcester, to strengthen the garrison. And now another dissension 
was to appear ; Capt. Wing had secured an order from his Excellency 
the Governor, placing the command of the Town in the hands of 
one Edward Downing, who reported,^ August 1, 1G92, that a portion 
of the inhabitants were building a new garrison. That he had 
ordered them into Capt. Wing's garrison but that they had refused 
to come, aud that he could not be responsible for their safety, not 
having men sufficient to guard both locations. At the same time 
another petition addressed to the Governor, signed by Thomas 
Allerton and five other persons, residing in the southeasterly portion 
of the Town, was carried to Boston by Thomas Crosby, praying that 
they might be allowed to complete tlieir garrison. Wing's being two 
miles distant from tiieir homes and fields, which they should have to 
neglect were they compelled to go tiiere. 



1 See Samuel Sewall's diary. 

2 Minutes of Council, Vol. 86, Mass. Archives. 



HISTOEICAL NOTES. 121 

Notwithstanding the danger to which the planters were subjected, 
and the anxiety felt by the inhabitants for their personal safety, still 
the settlement thrived as new settlers came in, the list having been 
enlarged by the names of Benjamin Hinton, Richard Hilton, Thomas 
Baker, John Fay, and filamnd Lawson, the constable, chosen probably 
to succeed Wm. Weeks, who made a sale (recorded Nov. 26, 1686) 
of his house, with 40 acres of land, to Isaac Bull, about which time 
Weeks may have left the Town. The widow of Capt. Henchman, 
with her family, had already returned to Boston, .James Butler had 
died, Daniel Turrell had sold his 12 lots to Capt. John Wing, and 
possibly Jacob Leonard, with his family, had arrived in town, but of 
that there is no certainty ; the pi-oprietors' records do not show that 
he owned land here previous to 1714. But they do indicate that 
Samuel Leonard, a brother of Jacob, owned a lot of 40 acres here 
previous to the settlement of 1713, and there seems to be good reason 
for stating that he was a settler here with his family, and that his son 
Samuel, in 1G96, then a lad, was captured from here by the Indians, 
and was the same who, with Mrs. Thomas Dustin and Mrs. Neff, of 
Haverhill, escaped March 31, 1697, after having surprised and killed 
ten of their captors. 

Further real estate transactions took place among the inhabitants, 
one of which is worthy of mention, as it shows, periiaps, a connecting 
link with the settlement of 1713. In 1701, John Wing sold to Thos. 
Allerton 30 acres of land, bounded east by said Wing, west by Geo. 
Ripley, south by Isaac Bull and Thos. Allerton, north by estate of 
James Butler. This lot of 30 acres was a part of the 60 acres sold 
by John Atherton (sou of Thos. Allerton), to Jonas Rice, of Sud- 
bury, Dec. 4th, 1711 ; the other 30-acre lot was tiie home-lot of Thos. 
Allerton. On this sixty-acre lot Jonas Rice probably made his first 
home in Worcester. 

Owing, perhaps, to the lack of encouragement from the C4overuor 
and Council to provide better protection to the planters, some of those 
residing the most distant from Capt. Wing's garrison left the place, 
Thomas Allerton and Geo. Rosbury going to Norwich, Conn., the 
latter about the year 1693, and the former about 1702. In 1695 
Alexander Bogell and James Ford went to Mendon, whither Geo. 
Pyke followed about 1699. 

It was extremely unfortunate that all matters relating to the inter- 
ests of the Town could not have been conducted harmoniously, for 
no doubt the trouble between Wing and Danson, involving Capt. 
Henchman, had the effect of retarding the growth and prosperity of 



122 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

the place ; and again, when the division arose regarding the two gai-- 
risons, tliat ;ilso may have had its inHuence on the general result, by 
diuiiuisliing tlie conhdenee of the Governor and Council in the unity 
and stability of tlie settlement. But if the inhabitants ever had rea- 
son to expect assistance from government in the way of su|)plying 
soldiers for tlie protection of their homes from the relentless Indians, 
their hopes and expectations were dispelled by an act of the General 
Court, March 20th, 1G99, whereby Worcester was dropped from the 
list of Frontici' Towns, therefore little or no help for the Plantation 
might be looked for from that source. The inhabitants must now 
either protect themselves or retire to some of the larger towns. 
Tiiat tiie latter course, which was adopted by the inhabitants geuer- 
ally, proved the wiser of the two, we may JHdge from the sad fate 
that came to the family of Digory Serjent, who attempted to brave 
it out on Sagatabscot Hill. 

A number of the early settlers of Worcester came from Boston, and 
presumably among them was Digory Serjent, as the name appears on 
record tliere previous to his coming here in the spring of 1685, at 
which time he is enrolled among tiie iuliabitauts of Worcester. He 
was married in Boston by Cotton Mather, to Constance James, 
Oct. 13th, 1G93, bnt by his will, dated March 17th, 1696, we infer 
tliat liis wife was deceased for his daughter Martlia is thei-e mentioned 
as the only heir to his estate. He again married, and at ttie time of 
his death left five children who, with tlie mother, were taken captive 
i)y tlie Indians. As to the date of the death of Serjent and his wife, 
our local historians differ. Mr. Peter Whitney says it was in tlie 
year 1702; Mr. Wall gives it as occurring in the fall or winter of 
that year, while Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Barber record it as liappeniug 
al)out 1703 or 1704. It is to be regretted that a more diHinite date 
cannot at present be fi.xed. In the light of statistics now at hand, 
tlie year 1704 is the most probable date, when the settlement of 
1083—4 was finally abandoned. In the year 1713 another attenii)t was 
made to settle the town which proved successful. 

Worcester, even in those primitive days of her history, was not 
wanting in men of refinement and culture, and some of the names 
found on the list of early proprietors, .aside from those of the commit- 
tee, bear more than the ordinary siguificauce. Dr. Leonard Hoarr 
was a very learned man, chosen to succeed Rev. Chas. Chauncy as 
President of Harvard College. Not being successful, he resigned the 
oflice March 15th, 1675, aud died the 28th of Novernber following. 
His heirs retained their rights through the second and to the third 
settlement. His wife was Bridgett, daughter of .Tohn Lisle, whom he 



HISTORICAL NOTES. 123 

married in England. She afterwards married Mr. Hezekiah Usher, 
whose father was the first bookseller iu New England. This Mr. 
Hezekiah Usher also became one of the proprietors of Worcester, 
while his wife, Bridgett Usher, succeeded to the right of her former 
husband, Dr. Hoarr. Her father, Lord Lisle, was one of Cromwell's 
Peers, and her mother. Lady Alicia Lisle, was beheaded at Winches- 
ter, England, Sept. 2, 1685, for harboring Mr. Hieks, a non-conform- 
ing minister. The marriage of Bridgett Hoarr with Mr. Usher proved 
an unhappy one, and she returned to England, leaving Boston July 
12, 1687. After the death of Mr. Usher, which occurred July 11, 
1697, at Lynn, she came again to Boston where she for some years 
resided in a sumptuous manner, dying there May 25, 1723. 

Having in a very brief manner traced out some of the fortunes and 
misfortunes of the little frontier hamlet, let us take a hasty glance at 
those persons who from time to time constituted the committee for 
settling the town. 

Captain Richard Beeres was one of the original proprietors of 
Watertown, was admitted freeman there March, 16.S7, and was select- 
man for more than thirty years. In 1654 lie was granted a license 
" to keep an ordinary." He was reinesentative to the General Court 
from the year 1663 to the time of his death. 

Captain Beeres was evidently a man of courage, having had 
considerable experience as an Indian fighter. When the news of 
the ,attack on Bropkfield reached Boston, the Council immediately 
despatched two companies ; one of them under command of Capt. 
Beeres, starting August 6th, 1G75, they reached Brookfield on the 
afternoon of the ne.xt day, it being Saturday. After a few days 
spent in reconnoitering, Capt. Beeres with his men left Brookfield 
August 16tli, for Hadley. Other companies of soldiers had arrived, 
and on the 23d a council of war was held wlien it was decided to 
disarm the Hadley Indians who had collected at the fort on the west 
side of the river about half-way between Hatfield and Northampton ; 
while negotiations for a peaceful delivery of arms was going on, the 
iTidi.ans, after putting to death one of their number, an old man, 
who was opposed to fighting, made their escape. On the 25th, 
Beeres and Lathrop with 100 men pursued them, came upon them 
near a swamp in the present town of Whately where an engagement 
took place in which nine whites and twenty-sis Indians were killed. 
Capt. Beeres and his men are then supposed to have returned to 
Hadley. All was quiet until September 1st, when the Indians fell 
upon the town of Deerfield, and on the next day destroyed all the 



124 BI-CENTENKtAL CELEBRATION. 

houses at Northfield except the garrison. Friday morning, Septem- 
ber 3, C'apt. Beeres with 36 men and an ox team loaded with stores 
and aranuiiiition, started to bring off the men at the garrison at 
Northfield, not knowing of the attack on the town the day previous. 
Night coniiug on they encamped within three or four miles of the 
garrison they were attempting to reach. Saturday morning, Septem- 
ber 4th, Capt. Beeres. leaving his horses with a small guard at the 
camp, pushed on with the rest of his men and the team for the fort, 
after crossing what is now called Saw-mill Brook, they found them- 
selves in the midst of an ambuscade while the Indians were pouring 
upon them a deadly fire. Beeres and his men fought bravely, l)ut 
were driven back three-fourths of a mile into a ravine on the south 
side of a hill, now called Beeres Hill, where the conflict was continued 
until their ammunition was exhausted and the gallant leader and the 
greater part of his men were slain. Only thirteen men, including 
the guard left with the horses, escaped and returned to Hadley. 

Captain Thomas Prentice was born in England in the year 1620, 
came to this country with his wife Grace in 1649, joined the church 
at Cambridge, and became a freeman in 16.t2 ; first settling in Cam- 
bridge on the south side of Charles River in what was then called 
Cambridge Village, now Newton. He was a farmer. In 1653 he 
hired Governor John Haynes's farm located in tiie south-west portion 
of Newton, occupying a part of the same farm in 1694. As early 
as 16.56 he was chosen Lieutentant of a company of Troopers in 
the lower Middlesex division. In 1662 was captain, and chosen 
representative from Cambridge in 1672 and two successive years. 
Chairman of the Board of Selectmen of New Cambridge in 1679, and 
for many years afterward. In the year 1663 he purchased 85 acres 
of land in the easterly part of Cambridge Village. This was his 
homestead and here he lived for more than half a century. He not 
only owned lands in Cambridge, but also in Billerica where he had a 
division of 150 acres in 1652. He purchased 300 acres of land 
bounded on the south by Long Island Sound and north-east by col- 
lege lands; a part of this tract came in Stonington, Conn., and was 
occupied bj' Thomas Prentice, Jr. and his son Samuel about the year 
1710. Capt. Prentice was one of the most skilful among the Indian 
fighters, and became noted for courage, self possession and a keen 
sense of justice. While he was a terror to his Indian foes he was their 
friend when at peace. He was always ready to respond to the call 
of the Council, and his company was one of the first to march for 
the protection of the frontier settlements at the outbreak of the war 



HISTORICAL NOTES. 125 

with King Philip, all through which contest he served with great 
distiuction. Wheu Sir P^dmimd Audros escaped to Rhode Island in 

1689, and was arrested at Bristol, Capt. Prentice was placed in 
command of the troops to escort him as a prisoner back to Boston. 
In the year 1686 he was api)oiuted Justice of the Peace, and at the 
death of Major General Gookin the christian Indians petitioned the 
General Court to have Capt. Prentice ap|)ointed his successor as 
their Superintendent, he having been in command of the troops that 
escorted them to Deer Island in 1675. He died July 7, 1709, at the 
age of 89 years, from the effect of a fail from his horse. 

Mr. Adam Winthrop was grandson of Governor John Winthrop 
and only son of Adam and Elizabeth (Glover) Winthrop, born 
October 15, 1647. Graduate of Harvard College, 1668. Chosen 
Constable in 1681, but refused to serve. Freeman in 1683. Chosen 
one of the Commissioners for the town of Boston in 1684, 1685 and 

1690. Elected one of the Selectmen in 1688 and 1689. Representa- 
tive 1689, 1691 and 1692. Named by the King in the new charter 
as a member of the Governor's Council, but at the first popular 
election held May, 1693, he was left off. He married in England, 
Mary, daughter of Col. Luttrell, of Bristol. Joined Rev. Mr. 
Mather's church, April 30, 1682, and died August 3, 1700, leaving a 
sou Adam, graduate of Harvard College, 1694, and a daughter Mary, 
both born in England. 

Captain John Wing was of Boston and styled a mariner, having in 
his younger days devoted considerable time to that occupation. When 
about thirty-four years of age he in 1671 and 1672 appears in Boston 
as Constable. In 1676 chosen to "look after too much drinking in 
private houses." In prosecuting the duties of that call he perhaps 
saw the increasing demand for better accommodations for the public, 
for the next year he took out a license to keep a tavern and to sell 
beer, wine and cider. He for many years kept the " Castle Tavern," 
a noted and popular house for entertainment. It stood on the corner 
of the present Elm Street and Dock Square. He was a member of 
the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Co. and Captain of a company 
as early as 1684. Being a popular landlord he received the generous 
patronage of his townsmen and soon found himself well to do for 
this world's goods. Becoming interested in the establishment of the 
new plantation near Quinsigamond Ponds, and having ample means 
he undertook the task of supplying the town with both a grist and 
saw-mill, beginning their erection in the year 1684 and completing 
them before December, 1685, receiving from the Committee a grant 



126 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

of sis lots tlicrefof. October 21 , 1084, Capt. Wiug was added to the 
committee for settling the towu, aud for more than six years gave 
much of his time to the demands of the settlement. He was the first 
Towu Clerk chosen by the inhabitants. As a financial speculation, 
his venture iu Worcester was not a great success, owing, undoubtedly, 
to the exceedingly slow growth of tlie town, which may have been 
caused by the unsettled state and threatening attitude in which the 
Indians in this region remained for many years during this period 
toward the white settlers. Mr. Wing's mills stood on Mill Brook 
fifty rods north of the present Lincoln Square. His frame house 
stood a short distance west of his mills. After the summer of 1690, 
Mr. Wing probably spent the most of his time iu Boston, where he 
died February 22, 1703. His will was probated the following month. 
He married Joshabeth, daughter of James Davis, and had ten 
children, the three eldest dying young; Sarah, the eldest that grew 
to mature age, married 1st, John Street, after his death she married 
December 30, 1697, Thomas Tomlin. 

Capt. Wm. Bond was of Watertown, and son of Thomas Bond of 
Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk Co., England. Capt. Bond was one of 
the representative men of his time, have filled acceptably many public 
offices, such as Selectman, Towu Clerk, Justice of the Peace, mem- 
ber of the Council of Safety, Representative, and chosen the first 
speaker of the General Court under the charter uniting the colonies 
of Massachusetts Bay aud Plymouth into one colony. October 7, 
1679, appointed one of the committee to rebuild the town of Lancas- 
ter, and subsequently to assist in adjusting matters at Worcester. 

Capt. Joseph Lynd was of Charlestown, and son of Thomas. He 
was a wealthy merchant and the owner of large tracts of land. 
Representative to the General Court, member of the Committee of 
Safety in 1689, and one of the Council in the Charter of 1691. 

Deacon John Hayues was of Sudbury, which town he represented 
in the General Court, was a surveyor and a person frequently called 
upon to adjust differences aud establish boundary lines between 
estates. 

Penn Townsend was son of William Townsend of Boston, and 
born December 20, 1651, taking his christian name from his mother 
whose maiden name was Hannah Penn. Mr. Townsend was made 
freeman in 1674, and the same year member of the Ancient and 
Honorable Artillery Company, appointed ensign in 1675, under Capt. 
Thos. Clarke in the 7th militia company. The next year he was, on 
motion of Capt. Clarke, made a Lieutenant, and in October, 1680, 



HIST(>RICAL NOTES. 127 

received a Captain's commission, was a Major in 1693, and reached 
the rank of Colonel in the year 1700. In civil as well as military 
affairs Col. Townsend made comparatively the same progress iu 
attaining to high and responsible positions, gradually rising from 
the office of Inspector to Selectman, Representative, Commissioner, 
Councillor, Judge, and is recorded as having been a gentleman very 
courteous and affalile in conversation, and was intimately associated 
with some of the best and most al)le meu in the colony. 

Capt. Ephraim Hunt was of Weymouth, and son of Kphraim who 
was born in England. Capt. Hunt served in the expedition to 
Canada iu 1690, and served as Colonel in the expedition against the 
Indians at Groton, 1706-7. Was Representative and Councillor. 
He died in 1713, leaving an estate valued at two thousand two hun- 
dred and ninety-eight pounds. 

Captain Daniel Henchman's name first appears on the Records of 
the Town of Boston, March 2(!, 1666, at which time he was employed 
by the town to assist Mr. Robert Woodmansey iu the G'raramar 
School and teach children how to write, to receive therefor £40 per 
annum, the year to begin March 1st, 166.5-6. By this we judge 
that Mr. Henchman had already assumed the duties as teacher, au 
avocation which he continued to follow until March 1st, 1670. 
October 30 of the following year he was given liberty to build a 
wharf before his own land. Admitted freeman in 1672. Became a 
member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillei-y Company, and 
October 7, 1674, appointed Captain of the 5th Boston Company of 
the Colonial Militia. It would seem that in order to merit such 
rapid promotion he must have possessed more than the ordinary 
aptitude for militaiy service, or, as there is some reason to believe, 
he may have been trained in arms under Cromwell in England, for 
after the death of that noted leader not a few of his co-workers found 
homes this side the Atlantic, at a period when their courage and 
military training qualified them to occupy prominent positions and 
render valuable aid for the defence and preservation of the new 
settlements. 

Captain Henchman probably was a descendant from the Henchmans 
of the County of Nottingham, England, and came to this country 
from Ireland, for at the time of the baptism of his daughter Susanna, 
the record calls the mother of the church at " Dublin in Ireland." 
May 12, 1675, he was commissioned to go on a special expedition, 
iu answer to an appeal for assistance against the Indians, from the 
Plymouth Colony, and marched from Boston with 100 men on June 



128 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBKATION. 

24th. Capt. Thomas Prentice also wcut in command of a troop of 
horse with tiie same expedition. Again on the 5th of July, the day 
following that merciless attack on the whites at Swanzey, Capt. 
Henchman marched with his company from Boston for the Narra- 
ganset country, to treat with King Philip and his fellows. Ten days 
afterward the entire military force of Massachusetts were called out 
and proceeded to Pocasset Swamp where an attack was made upon 
tlie Indians. Darkness coming on the fighting ceased, leaving live 
of the English soldiers killed and seven wounded. All the Massa- 
chusetts troops were withdrawn from the scene of conflict to await 
further develo|)ments. except Capt. Henchman's Company, that was 
to remain at Pocasset to watch over Philip and assist the Plymouth 
forces. But Philip and his warriors escaped through the swamp and 
marching nortliward spread anxiety and terror throughout all the 
New P^ngland settlements. Henchman with a few of his men pushed 
ou after the Indians, making his way as far as Mendon and Brook- 
field, when he was ordered by General Daniel Denison, August 9, 
1G75, to return to Pocasset, get his men and march them to Boston, 
which command he obeyed. It would appear that, up to this time, 
Capt. Henchman had been one of the most popular and trustworthy 
officers in the colony, but now from some cause, for whicii, perhaps, 
he alone was not responsible, he was looked upon with some feeling 
of disapprobation, for when he was appointed to command a body 
of troops collected from some of the towns near Boston, the Roxbnry 
men refused to serve under him, and expressed a desire to have Capt. 
Oliver for their commander. Their wish, however, was not gratified, 
for a compromise was made by placing Capt. Thos. Lake in com- 
mand. But Capt. Henchman was actively employed during the 
months of August and September in protecting tiie frontier towns, 
so far as possible, from the ruthless hands of the savage. September 
27 he was in commaud of the garrison at Chelmsford. November 
1st, 1675, he hastened from Boston for the purpose of rescuing 
several persons who had been captured by the Indians at Marlboro, 
after a march of four days he came upon the marauders ten miles 
beyond Mendon, when he engaged them and liberated the captives. 
November 9th he engaged a party of Indians at Hassanamisco 
(Grafton). In this engagement he lost his lieutenant, Zekill Curtis, 
who received a mortal shot on reaching the door of the wigwam in 
which the Indians were found. November 12th Henchman returned 
with his command to Boston, and was ordered by the Council, 
January 11th, to attend to the discharging and settling with soldiers 



HISTORICAL NOTES. 129 

from the several towns. April 27, 1676, he was placed in command 
of six companies of the militia that were present at the funeral of 
Major Simon Willard. The first of June the forces were mustered 
at Concord (which was then an important military post) and marched 
towards Brookfield, on their way encountered Indians at Washacum 
Ponds with whom they had an engagement. Continuing their march 
they reached Hadley Juno 14th, and returned to Boston the 24th, 
when he settled with the troops. About September 20 he was sent 
to organize an expedition to Pennacook. 

Captain Henchman besides being cousin of Judge Samuel Sewall, 
was allied to other prominent families — the Hulls, Gookins, Quincys, 
Eliots, — and was without doubt one of the most capable officers of his 
day, and contributed valiant service during those troublesome eon- 
tests with King Philip and his treacherous horde. The fact that he 
on September 6th, 1676, asked to be allowed to resign his commis- 
sion, but w'l® refused, shows in what esteem he was held by the 
Council. Hostilities with the Indians having received a serious 
check, he again resumed his duties as a member of the Committee to 
Settle the Plantation at Quinsigaraoud, a scheme in which he 
evidently felt a deep interest, being one of the original proprietors. 
Here he erected a house, probably as early as the year 1683, and 
with his family soon took possession of the new home, supplying it 
with the usual assortment of merchandise kept in those days at a 
country store. Captain Henchman by his first wife Sarah had 
Nathaniel, Hezekiah, Richard, Susanna — born June 7, 1667, and 
William — born July 28, 1669, who died in infancy. On the death of 
his wife Sarah, he married Mary, daughter of William Poole, and 
had William, born March 29, 1673; Jane, born May 25, 1674; 
Daniel, born June 16, 1677; and Mary, born June 1, 1682. Mr. 
Henchman, five months prior to his death, contemplated removing 
with his family to Boston, but was stricken down at his home in 
Worcester, where he died October 15, 1685. Two servants, one white 
and the other black, accompanied by the remainder of the family and 
one or two friends proceeded to that lonely grave in the wilderness 
where was laid away all that was mortal of the Boston school-master, 
the brave and gallant soldier. Captain Henchman left a large estate 
for his time, the total valuation of which was £1,381 13s. 9d. This 
included a library, consisting of a bible, nine books on divinity and 
language, with one hundred and twenty books on miscellaneous 
subjects, a clock, a small stock of shop goods, such as tape, ribbon, 
cloth, &c., with buildings and lands at Worcester, also brew-house, 
10 



130 BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

vault and well with wharf, which was valued at £157 10s. Od, and four 
other pieces of real estate in Boston. The appraisers for the property 
in Worcester were James Ford and Isaac Bull. His funeral expenses 
were £16 3s. lOd. The widow with sous Richard and Hezekiah were 
appointed to administer on the estate. At this time, April 29, 1686, 
Richard was styled a school-master, and continued to teach school in 
Boston and receive rent from the town for his school-house for many 
years, certainly until after March, 1715. He married Esther Webster, 

December 24, 1697. Hezekiah married Abigail , and lived in 

Boston, where he died May, 1694. Four children survived him, 
the eldest, Daniel, born in Boston, January 1st, 1689, l)ecame the 
enterprising bookseller and published the first edition of the English 
Bible printed in America. His daughter Lydia married Thomas 
Hancock,' who when a young man served his time with her father, 
and became also book-binder, bookseller and merchant iu Boston. 

Nathaniel, who was one of the first settlers of Worcester, and 
licensed to keep an ordinary in the town, returned to Boston as early 
as 1694, and perhaps before that date, for he was married in Boston 
by Cotton Mather, January 11, 1693, to Hannah Green and had three 
children, two sons and one daughter. Nathaniel, the eldest, born 
March 31, 1695, died young; Mary, born April 13, 1697; Nathaniel, 
born November 2, 1699, graduate of Harvard College, 1717, who 
also left descendants. The three sons of Capt. Henchman, of whom 
special mention has been made, became useful and prominent citizens 
of Boston where they resided for many years. 

To ascribe to Major-General Daniel Gookin the title of Father of 
Worcester, would be conferring a compliment well deserved, and at 
the same time impart au honor to Worcester which she need not feel 
ashamed of or reluctant to accept. In those early days of New Eng- 
land settlements. General Gookin was familiar with all this beautiful, 
yet wild and unreclaimed region of country lying between the towns 
of Lancaster, Mendon and Brookfield. His duties as Superintendent 
of all the Indians who would come under the submission of the Massa- 
chusetts Bay Colony (he having been appointed iiy the General Court 
to that office in 1656), made it necessary for him, from time to time, 
to pass over tiiis territory, and not infrequently had he made his visits 
in company with that venerable apostle, John Eliot. Here on the 
summit of Pakachoag, these men, surrounded by the Sagamores, 
Hoorrawanwit, Woounaskochu and their fellows, Eliot conducted 



1 Was uuole to the Goveraor, John Hancock, who became heir to his estate. 



HISTORICAL NOTES. 131 

religious services, while Gookin followed with his lessons of civil 
governineut. 

As early ;is October 11, 1665, Gookiu was appointed chief of a com- 
mittee to view this location for the purpose of making a settlement, 
hnt the death of Lieut. Thos. Noyes, one of their number, and other 
causes, prevented any action until after the appointment of a new 
committee. May 15, 1667, and on receiving a report favorable to a 
settlement, the General Court placed him at the head of the committee 
to arrange matters for the plantation. The fidelity with which he 
prosecuted that trust is shown by his successful efforts in satisfyiuij 
the Court of the justice in reserving this tract of land for the use of a 
plantation rather than to allow it to fall into the hands of those who 
claimed it by right of prior grants for speculation. It is quite probii- 
ble that it was through his influence that such men as Dr. Leonaid 
Hoarr, Capt. Daniel Henchman, Adam Winthrop and Hezekiah Usher, 
became proi)rietors of the town. For a period of twenty years, and 
in fact until his death, there were no signs of abatement in his inter- 
est for the settlement. As Mr. Gookin had received honors at the 
hands of Oliver Cromwell, and doubtless one who held him in hio-h 
esteem, it is reasonable to believe that Mr. Gookin used his influence 
in selecting a name for the new plantation that might commemorate 
that crowning victory of Cromwell at Worcester. 

Major-General Daniel Gookin was son of Daniel and grandson of 
John Gookin, of Ripple Court, County of Kent, England. The 
grandfather of John was Arnoldus, which is as far as the line has 
been traced. Arnoldus had a son ThouLis, the father of John, of 
Ripple Court. The father of the subject of this sketch married 
" Marye Birrde," at Canterbury Cathedral, Jan'y 31, 1608, and went 
to Ireland, was called of Carrigaline, County of Cork, a Parish seven 
miles southeast from the city of Cork. He became one of the paten- 
tees for the settlement of Virginia, receiving his patent in 1620, 
leaving Ireland the following year in the "Flying Harte," witii a 
large number of servants, s,iid to have been 50 in number, a good 
supply of cattle and provisions, also 30 passengers. The vessel 
reached Virginia Nov. 22, 1621, and Master Daniel Gookiu planted 
his colony at Newport News. The following year occurred that 
memorable massacre by the Indians when about 350 whites were 
put to death. The commissioueis becoming alarmed for the safety 
of the outlying settlements, issued orders for the people to cougreo-ate 
at the larger places for self protection against the savage foe. Master 



132 BI-CENTENNI.\L CELEBRATION. 

Gookin refused to obey the call, and with only thirty-five men about 
him, remained and protected his property. 

Major-General Daniel Gookin was born about 1612, and the first 
we learn of him he is conveying land at Newport News for his father, 
under date of Feb. 1st, 16.'50, his father having probably returned to 
Ireland. Dec. 29, 1637, Daniel Gookin received a grant of 2, .500 
acres of land in upper Norfolk. In 1642 we find hira Captain of the 
train-band, also one of the commissioners for the monthly court of 
upper Norfolk. Nov. 4, 1642, he received another grant of 1,400 
acres on Rappahannock River. 

In the year 1642 our Puritan colonists sent missionaries to Virginia 
for the purpose of converting the people from Kpiscopaliauism. The 
following year the Assembly passed an act prohibiting a New England 
clergyman from preaching or teaching, publicly or privately ; also 
ordered the Governor and Council to take care that all non-conform- 
ists depart the colony. Capt. Gookin liad become one of tiie converts, 
and so with his family left Virginia, arriving at Boston, May 10, 
1644; sixteen days later he was admitted into the First Church, and 
nineteen days after his arrival honored with the freedom of the 
colony. For a few years he lived in Roxbury and Boston, but in 
1648 removed witli his family to Cambridge, and was transferred, 
Sept. 3 of that year, from Mr. Cotton's church, at Boston, to the 
church at Cambridge. Chosen Representative for Cambridge in 1648 
and 1651, the latter year was Speaker of the house, assistant in 1652, 
and re-elected for thirty-four successive years. 

In 1654 he made a voyage to England, partly on private business ; 
was pleasantly received by Cromwell, who appointed him commis- 
sioner to induce New Englanders to emigrate to the Island of Jamaica. 
Gookin reached home on the 19th of January, 1655, and although he 
devoted considerable time to Cromwell's colonization scheme, was not 
successful, owing, perhaps, to tlie fear of Spanish invasions, and on 
June 20, 1657, he addressed a letter to John Thurloe, Esq., Secretary 
of State, under Cromwell, asking to be relieved as commissioner. 
In 1662, Mr. Gookin and Rev. Jonathan Mitchell were appointed 
the first licensers of the Printing Press in Cambridge. He was a 
staunch friend and supporter of Thomas Danforth against arbitrary 
power, and among the foremost to defend the chartered rights of the 
colonists. Resolute aud unswerving, he firmly maintained the bent 
of his mind, whether relating to civil or religious matters ; was out- 
spoken against the Quakers, but a firm friend of the Praying Indians, 
having written their history. The Praying Indians, as they were 



HISTORICAL NOTES. 133 

called, were those who had beeu attracted by the earnest appeals of 
Eliot and Gookin, and had signified their desire to live ou friendly 
relations with the English settlers. . The plan was to bring the Indians 
together in villages by themselves, and through the influence of 
pastors and teachers, to try the experiment of civilizing them. They 
were encouraged in the pursuit of agriculture by the purchase by the 
whites of the surplus of their products, and, besides collecting furs, 
tiiey made baskets, clapboards, shingles and many other useful arti- 
cles, which found ready sale. They had their own schools and 
churches, and, so far as possible, native teachers, marshals, consta- 
bles, and Justices of the Peace. Some seven of these Indian villages 
had grown into being under the kindly care of Gookin. The test of 
eighteen years had been fruitful of good results, when, on the 24th of 
June. 1675, the attack on Swansea was the signal of an outbreak 
which soon threatened the destructiou of all the English settlements. 
Reports were rife claiming the unfaithfulness of the Piaying Indians ; 
stories were so magnified that people really became alarmed for safety, 
but Gookin and Eliot were firm in the belief of the fidelity of 
their Indian subjects. The excitement grew to such an extent that 
Gookin was obliged to call all his friendly Indians (about 3,000 in 
number) to Boston, in the autumn of 1G75, and place them for safe 
keeping on Long and Deer Islands, in the harbor. Still the people 
did not feel safe, and threats of violence were made against Gookin, 
Danforth and FAiot, so that for a time it was unsafe for either of 
them- to walk the streets ; and Richard Scott was imprisoned for 
threatening the lives of t;(jokiu and Danforth. Ou election day, 
April, 1676, Gookin was put off the Bench, and on the 7th day 
of the month, while he with others were going down to the Island in 
a boat to look after the wants of the Indians, they were, as it appears, 
purposely run down by a much largei- craft, and Gookin came very 
near being drowned, having, as he said, "sunk twice beneath the sur- 
face of the water before beiug rescued." Five days later, April 12th, 
a portion of the Indians were removed from the Islands and taken to 
Cambridge, where Gookin took care of them until they were ao-ain 
remanded to their homes from whence they had been so unceremoni- 
ously called. Many were the stories of their treachery and disloyalty, 
but Gookin believed in them ; he knew by many ways that they could 
be trusted. He remembered how, time after time, he had sent them 
as runners and scouts; how, at 10 o'clock on the night of February 
9th, 1675-6, Job Kattenanit fell exhausted at his door, in Cambridge, 
having travelled 80 miles through a wilderness on snow shoes to briuo- 



134 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 

the news that the ludiaus coutemplated the destruction of Lancaster the 
following day. At which time Major Gookin arose from his bed, and 
after a hasty consultation with his neighbor, Mr. Danforth, despatched- 
a courier iu the night for Marlboro', Concord and Lancaster, to 
arouse the troops for the defence of the latter place. The expedi- 
tion was tuit i)artially successful, for llie Rev. Mr. Rowlandson's house 
was burned, several wliites killed, and some 20 women and children 
carried away ca|)tive. But the men sent out by Gookin arrived in 
season to drive off tlie enemy and prevent the entire destruction of 
tiie town. A petition was soon sent to the Governor and Council 
praying that some ste[) might be taken towards the redemption of the 
ca|)tives, especially the wife and children of minister Rowlandson. and 
in compliance the Cotmcil ordered Mr. Gookin to try and procure one 
or two Indians with courage suflicient to undertake the hazardous task 
of treating with the enemy for the captives. At first he was unable 
to find any one willing to go ; but March 23, at the suggestion of Mr. 
Gookin, Mr. Rowlandson again petitioned, and this time an Indian, 
Tom Dublet alias Nepponet, by name, was found ready to make the 
attempt. Accordingly Capt. Henchman was ordered to make an 
agreement with Tom, and he was sent to Major Gookin's house, at 
Cambridge, where he received his instructions, leaving on Monday, 
April 3d. On the 12th he returned with a letter from the enemy 
giving assurance that most of the captives were alive and well, and 
intimating that an exchange might be made. Tom again went to the 
captors in company with another Indian named Peter Tatatiquinea, 
returning April 27th, with a letter, stating that the minister's wife 
could be released for £20 (that sum having been named by Mrs. 
Rowlandson herself) ; also that Mrs. Kettel would be exchanged (but 
she did not know what her husband could give). Mr. John Hoar, of 
Concord, returned with the money, accompanied with Tom and Peter, 
and Mrs. Rowlandson was returned to Lancaster, May 2d. The 
remaining captives were ransomed or succeeded in gaining their own 
libert}'. All through the Indian war of 167.i and 1G76 the Praying 
Indians remained true to the white people, and in all [)robability saved 
many, if not all the settlements of New England, from complete 
annihilation. They were so many thousand warriors withheld from 
the strength and influence of King Philip, while at the same time 
many of them willingly went into service as soldiers and spies against 
their own race for the protection of the colonists ; and this they did 
through the influence of Gookin and Eliot, who were in due time 
reinstated into the confidence and esteem of their English brethren. 



HISTORICAL NOTES. 135 

It was claimed that those Iiuliau allies alone killed four huudied 
of the euemy. 

Iti the year 1674 Mr. Gookin wrote " Historical Collections of tiie 
Indians in New Enoland of the several Nations, Customs, Manners, 
Religions and Government before tiie English planted there," and 
dedicated it to King Charles II. and Hon. Robert Boyle. This was 
printed by the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1792. In 1677 
he wrote a Historical account of the doings and suffcuings of the 
Christian Indians in New England in the years 167.")-76-77. He 
also wrote the History of New England, in eight volumes, which he 
left in manuscript and was lost. 

It is said that on one of the return trips of General Gookin from 
England, he was accompanied by the regicides, Major-General William 
Goffe, and his father-in-law, Gen. Whalley, who for a time made their 
home at his house in Cambridge, and that he took care of their estates. 
Mr. Gookin evidently was a man of means, and after his arrival in 
New England devoted nearly all his time and energy to service in 
behalf of the colonists, acting on many important committees and 
rendering valuable aid in looking after the wants of Harvard College. 

In 1657 the General Court granted him 500 acres of laud for ser- 
vices rendered the colony. 

His letter of Eebruary 14tli, 1680, written in opposition to the send- 
ing of agents to England for the purpose of taking action regarding 
Mason's claim, attracted considerable attention at the time and 
increased his popularity in New England. In 1681 he was honored 
with the title of Major-General of the colony. After passing an 
eventful and useful life, he died March IDth, 1687, at the age of 75 
years. His will was made August 13th, 1685, and proved March 31, 
1687. The property bequeathed amounted to £323 6s. lid. He 
was the last Major-General under the Colonial period, and as Judge 
Sewall records him in his diary, "a right good man." 

That he came from a goodly family in England there is abundant 
evidence, his father having been the possessor of a large estate, while 
his uncle, Sir Vincent Gookin, was a man of prominence and influence 
in both England and Ireland, being especially notable in the County 
of Cork, representing the towns of Bandon antl Kinsale in Parliament. 
Col. Charles Gookin, Deputy Governor of Pennsylvania, was grandson 
of this Sir Vincent. Out of Major-General Gookin's family of eight 
children, three died in infancy ; Mary married Edmund Batter, of 
Salem ; Elizabeth married first, Rev. John Eliot, Jr. ; second, Edmund 
Quiucy, of Braintree; Daniel, graduate Harvard College 1669, where 



136 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

he was a Follow for many years, afterwards settled as pastor of the 
first church at Sherboin ; Samuel was appointed Sheriff of Middlesex 
County and succeeded John Green as Marshal-General or High 
Sheriff of the Colony. On the nullification of that office, he was High 
Slieiiff of Suffolk County. In 17i)2 made High Sheriff for Middlesex 
County and was continued in office for more than twenty-five years. 
It was probably his son Daniel who held office as the first High 
Sheriff' of Worcester County from 1731 until his death in 1743. 
Nathaniel, the youngest son of the Major, was a graduate of Harvard 
College in 167.5, studied for the ministry and succeeded Rev. Urian 
Oakes as pastor of the church at Cambridge. June 27, 1692, he 
became a member of that honorable body known as " President and 
Fellows of Harvard College." 



THE ORIGINAL ORDER NAMING THE TOWN. 



Through the courtesy of the Worcester Society of Antiquity 
we are enabled to present as a frontispiece to this work a 
fac-simile of the original order naming the town, which reads 
as follows : 

"At a Gen"" Court held in Boston y 15"'. October 16S4/ 

" Vpon y» Motion & desire of Maj" Gen»" Daniel Gookin Cap' Thomas 

Prentice & Daniel Henchman this Courts Comittee for y setling of a new 

Plantation neare Quansikomon pond 

1 Humbly desireing _v' .V Court will please to name j" Town Worcester, 
& y' y° Brand marke for cattle there may be thus aJll 

2 That one of sd Comittee being deceased y' y" Court will pleas to appoint 
a fitt man to supply his place, for to help in y' further setling of s"* 
Town to all intents & purposes as formerly ordered ; & do humbly 
ppound to V Hon"' Court y' M' Adam Winthrop may be y' person, 
being one interested in s'' Town. 

The Depu'' Judge meete to graunt all the aboue men- 
tioned pticulers & desire o' hon"' magis'" Consent thereto 

William Torrey Cleric 
Consented to by the magis" " Edward Rawson Secret 

17"' of October 1684. 

The magis'» Judge meete to Add Capt wing to bee 
21 Octob 84 of this Comittee their brethren the Deputyes hereto 

Consenting- 

Edward Rawson Secret 
Consented to by the Dep" 

William Torrey Cleric" 



11 



WORCESTER OF TODAY. 



Ok the natural site of Worcester, Prof. Hitchcock, in his report ou 
the Geology of Massachusetts, says : " This valley possesses precisely 
those features which art is capable of reuderiug extremely fasciuatiuo-. 
There is scarcely to be met with ia this or any other country a more 
charming landscape than Worcester presents from almost any of the 
moderately elevated hills tliat surround it." In a still earlier period. 
President Dwight's notes of his visit to Worcester, written near the 
close of the last century, are a vivid record of a bright and hand- 
some New England town adorued with beautiful and well-kept homes. 
At all times these natural aud artificial features of Worcester have 
won the pride of her citizens and the admiration of her visitors, 
and never more so thaa at the present time, when in a city of seventy 
thousaud people, the central portions present the more advanced 
aspects of city life, pushing out into the suburbs and along the 
slopes of the outlying hills the representative homes of Worcester. 

The following comparative figures will be of interest : — 
Population of Worcester. 



1776, 


1,925 


1850, 


17,049 


ISOO, 


2,411 


1860, 


24,973 


1820, 


2,962 


1870. 


41,105 


1830, 


4,172 


1880, 


58,295 


1840, 


7,497 


1884, (estimated), 70,000 


1845, 


11,556 








Valuation of 


Worcester. 




1800, 


$ 829,651 


1860, 


$16,406,900 


1810, 


1,476,383 


1880, 


41,006,862 


1820, 


2,015,750 


1884, 


50,773,475 


1840, 


4,288,950 







140 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

TuE City Government. 

The city by the statute of 18G6 is divided into eight wards. The 
uuiuuil election takes phice ou the Tuesday next followiug the second 
Muuday of December. The iiiuuicipal year commences ou the first 
Monday in January. 

The City Goveruuient is made u[> of the Mayor, chosen auuually, 
and a City Council of two brauches, a Board of Aldermen of one 
from each ward, and a Common Council of three from each ward, the 
elections in the wards so alternating that all these terms of service 
shall be for two years. At the annual city election are also chosen 
one Assistant-Assessor for each ward for one year, and one of the 
three members of the School Committee, from each ward, to serve 
for three years. 

By the City Council in Convention in January are chosen the fol- 
lowiug, all for the term of one year : The City Auditor, Treasurer 
and Collector of Taxes, Commissioner of Highways, City Engineer, 
City Clerk, City Solicitor, Water Commissioner, Water Registrar, 
Superintendent of Public Buildings, Superintendent of Sewers and 
City Messenger. Also for terms of three years : the Commissioner 
of Public Grounds and the Commissioners of the Jaques and other 
funds of the City Hospital ; and a Commissioner of Hope Cemetery 
for five years. 

In December of each year are elected by the City Council the Chief 
Engineer and four Assistant P^ngineers of the Fire Department for 
one year ; one of these, Superintendent of Fire Alarm Telegraph. 
Also two of the twelve directors of the Free Public Library for terms 
of six years and two Overseers of the Poor for three years. 

There are elected by concurrent vote in January, four trustees of 
the City Hospital, and, by concurrent vote in December, of each 
year, one Commissioner of Sinking Funds for three years. 

There are appointed by the Mayor and Aldermen in January, a 
City Physician for three years, one member of the Board of Health 
for two years, a City Marshal and two assistants for one year, and 
the police force and Constables for the same period. 

There are elected by the Common Council its President and Clerk, 
and by the School Committee annually a Superintendent of Schools, 
and Truant Otllcers. 

The public Charitable institutions of the city are in charge of 
nine Overseers of the Poor, sLx: of these chosen as above stated. 



WORCESTER OF TO-DAY. 141 

with the Mayor, City Marshal and Superintendent of Schools as ex- 
officio members. 

The Board of Health, estaljlished by legislative enactment in 1877, 
consists of the City Physician ex-officio, and two members chosen as 
above. 

The Standing Committees of the Board of Aldermen are appointed 
by tile Mayor, those of the Common Council l)y the President of that 
body. The Joint Committee on Finance consists of the Mayor and 
President of the Common Council cx-olficio, and two Aldermen and 
three Common Couucilmen. 

The Joint Standing Committee on Public Works is composed of 
the Mayor and President of tlie Common Council and the respective 
Chairmen of the Joint Committees on Water, Seweis, Highways and 
Sidewalks, Fire Department, and Lighting the Streets. 

The Mayor has no vote in the Board of Aldermen, but he has a 
veto power. The Finance Committee considers and reports on all 
subjects relating to the finances of the city, and approves all bills and 
accounts against the city. In 1875 the law of the State provided for 
municipal sinking funds, and in the same year the system went into 
operation in this city. Concerning the operation of this fund, the 
late Hon. A. H. Bullock, in his report in 1881 as one of the Worcester 
Board of Commissioners of Sinking Funds, said : 

"The beuetitent operations ol' the siukin;; fund cauuot be perceived by 
looking at the reports of any one year. These funds have been constantly at 
work. Tliese funds have not merely been accumulating interest, but tliey 
have been paying oil' debts. But for this last mentioned use the amount of 
the Worcester sinking funds would be much more striking to I lie popular eyu 
than it now is. The fuuds amounted at the close of the year 1881 to 
$205,299.92. But in the brief period, from 1876 to 1881 inclusive, the Sinking 
Fund Commissioners have paid at ditferent times of the city debt the sum of 
|i657,400. If these payments had not been made, the debt of the city would 
now be $3,239,700, whereas in fact it is .$2,582,300. The coutribulions made 
by the city to the Sinking Funds in the six years referred to have been 
$895,230.93, showing * * * * the high relations which the Sinking 
Funds sustain to the process of paying the debt of the city and the important 
function they sustain in building up and strengthening the credit of the 
city." 

By the continuance of the same policy the same relation between 
the city debt and the sinking funds is maintained at the present time 
in the eighteen distinct funds the trust now covers. 



142 BI-CENTENNIAI. CELEBRATION. 

General Notes. 

Worcester has foity-iiiue miles of sewers, uinety-scven miles of 
water pipe, and two liiiiulred miles of streets. There are used iu 
lighting the streets of the city fifty electric lights, seven hundred and 
seven gas lights, and one thousand two hundred and thirty-four gaso- 
lene lights. The Worcester (ias Light Company went into operation 
iu 1851. The electric street lighting system was introduced iu 1883. 

The religious bodies of the city, in the order of their establishment 
here, are as follows : — 

Dole. 

Congregational (Trin.), 1716 

Congregational (Uuit.) 1785 

Baptist, 1812 

Methodist Episcopal, 1830 

Friends. 1837 

Universalist, 1841 

Second Advent, 1841 1 



Clu. 




Ualc. 


Chii. 


11 


Protestant Episcopnl, 


1843 




2 


Roman Catholic, 


1«46 




7 


Disciples, 


1860 




8 


Lutheran (Swedish) , 


1881 




1 


Free Baptist, 


1881 




1 


Jewish, 


1881 





Christadelphian, 1881 1 



The Banks of Worcester are here named iu the order of dates of 
their organization : 

Worcester National Bank, 1864 (formerly the Worcester Bank. 
Incorporated 1804) ; capital, $500,000. 

Central National Bauk, 1864 (Incorporated as a State Bank 
1829) ; capital, $300,000. 

Quinsigamond National Bauk, 1865 (Incorporated as a State Bank 
1833) ; capital, $250,000. 

Citizens National Bank, 1865 (Incorporated as a State Bank 
1836) ; capital, $150,000. 

Mechanics National Bank, 1865 (Incorporated as a State Bank 
1848) ; capital, $350,000. 

City National Bank, 1864 (Incori)orated as a State Bank 1854) ; 
capital, $400,000. 

First National Bank, 1863 ; capital, $300,000. 

Worcester Safe Deposit and Trust Co., 1869 ; capital, $200,000. 

The Savings Banks are as follows : — 

DcpoBita. 

Worcester County Institution for Savings, $9,034,844.71 

Worcester Mechanics Savings Bank, 3,544,065.80 

Worcester Five Cents Savings Bank, 2,675,120.36 

People's Savings Bank, 4,033,367.19 



i 



WORCESTER OF TO-DAY. 143 

The Worcester Co-operative Bank. Incorporated 1877. Authorized 
capital, $1,001), 000. Sliares iu force in 1884, 3,70.'i. 

Home Co-operative Bank. Incorporated 1882. Aiitliorized ca|Mt.al, 
$1,000,000. 

The local Insurance Companies are the following : — 

Worcester Mutual Fire Insurance Company. 1823. 

Merchants' and Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company. lS4fi. 

First National Fire Insurance Company. 18G0. 

Worcester Manufacturers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company. IS."),^). 

State Mutual Life Assurance Company. 1845. 

The Worcester Free Public Library was founded in 1859. It is in 
charge of twelve directors, two of whom are chosen in December of 
each year by the City Council in convention. The present structure 
on Elm street was completed and occupied in 18G1. The leading 
features of the Library are : Circulating Department 26,130 volumes, 
free to all residents over fifteen years of age. Intermediate Depart- 
ment 14,107 volumes, special restrictions as to being taken out. 
Reference Department or Green Library 20,901 volumes, attached to 
which is the collection of the Worcester District Medical Society. 
Free Reading Room, 258 papers and periodicals. A printed cata- 
logue has been issued and a manuscript catalogue is kept closely 
written up. The methods of the management of the Free Library 
have attracted wide attention, both in this country and abroad, in 
respect to the faithfulness and freedom with which resort to the 
books by all classes of readers is encouraged and made effective. 
Especially valuable is the relation of the Library to the pupils and 
students in our city schools to whose pursuit of knowledge in all 
branches of instruction the librarian and his assistants are constantly 
helpful. 

The American Antiquarian Society was incorporated in 1812. 
Isaiah Thomas was its chief founder and earliest benefactor. His 
own library and collections, which were large for their period, having 
formed the basis of the present library of upwards of 70,000 volumes, 
a collection whose value is recognized in all parts of the world. The 
present structure was occupied in 1853. 

The Worcester Society of Antiquity is an organization of similar 
scope of last named, but more especially local in its control and 
operations. Founded in 1875. Its library consists of about 11,000 
volumes, with a large archaeological collection. 

Worcester County Mechanics Association. 1842. Mechanics 



144 BI-CENTENNIi\X CELEBRATION. 

Hall completed 1857. It maintains a reading room for its members 
and has a library of 7,0i)() volumes. 

Worcester County Law Library. One of the most extensive and 
valuable law libraries in New England. 6,000 volumes. 

Worcester County Horticultural Society. 1S40. Horticultural 
Hall on Front Street, with a working library of 2,00l) volumes, are 
the possessions of the orgauizatiou. 

Among general societies and institutions are the following : — 

Young Men's Christian Association. Organized 1864. 

Old Men's Home. Incorporated 1870. 

Worcester Children's Friend Society. 1848. 

Home for Aged Females. 1869. 

Irish Catholic Benevolent Society. 1863. 

AVorcestei- Natural History Society. Founded as the Young Men's 
Library Association. 1852. 

Worcester Employment Society. 1875. 

Worcester Firemen's Eelief Association. 1874. 

Worcester Agricultural Society. LSI 7. Owns a fair ground of 
25 acres in west part of the city. 

Worcester Art Society. 1877. Holds monthly meetings. 

Art Students' Club. 1880. 

Grand Array of the Eepublic. 1867. (Geo. H. Ward Post, No. 10) . 

Patrons of Husbandry. (Worcester Grange, No. 22). 187.'5. 

Citizens' Law and Order League. 1883. 

Worcester District Medical Society. Organized 1804. 

Worcester Congregational Club. 1874. 

Worcester County Musical Association. Holding annual festivals 
in Septemljer of each year. 

Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Science. 1868. 

College of the Holy Cross. 1843. 

Massachusetts State Normal School. 1871. 

Worcester Academy. 1835. 

Highland Military Academy. 1857. 

INDUSTRIAL NOTES. 

In the early day, the town and village of Worcester presented the 
usual Inisiness and trade aspects of New England inland life, sharing 
tiie common allotment both in kind and number of the village trades 
and crafts. But in the earliest period of all, at the very foundation 
of the settlement, recognition was duly paid to the establishment of 
mechanical industries, as references on other and various pages of 
this volume attest. This whole region of central Massachusetts was 
full of the domestic industries of wheel and loom. Then came the 
factory system, when, as remarks a homely writer: 

" Tlio great wlieel with its woiidrrfiil now lie.atl, the wheel pin, the little 



WORCESTER OF TO-DAY. 145 

wheel, the distaff, the quill and quill wheel, the clock reel, the swifts aud 
hatchel, coarse and fine cards for tow and cotton, the spools and w.irping- 
bars, reeds and harness, looms and their appendages were sent to the attics 
or left to destruction in the households. The exhilarating buzz of the little 
spinning wheels, the peculiar whirr of the large wheels and the click of the 
loom were lost In the farmhouses." 

One of the earliest considerable manufacturing enterprises in 
Worcester was doubtless the association formed in IT.Sfl for tlie 
purpose of spinning and weaving cotton. The first piece of corduroy 
was taken from the loom in April of that year. The factory stood on 
Mill Brook near where now is the intersection of School and Union 
Streets, where, in 1790, Samuel Brazer was still making corduroy 
aud "federal rib." At what is now Quinsigamond, Isaiah Thomas, 
in 1704, erected a paper-mill, later owned by Gardner Burbank, 
and which as late as 1834 was the Quinsigamond Paper Company, 
near what is now the Quinsigamond Wire Mills of the Washbuin 
& Moeu Manufacturing Company. In 1804 Peter and Ebenezer 
Stowell were weaving carpets and plaids here, and at one time had 
six looms of their own invention and manufacture in operation. 
Abel Stowell was celebrated as a maker of clocks at the close of the 
last aud opening of the present century. The town clock of the 
Old South Church, which did duty until a few years ago, was made 
by him in ISOO. There are in this vicinity several house clocks made 
by him still in use in families that greatly treasure them as heir- 
looms. There was in 1812 a small paper manufactory on the site 
of what was later the old Court Mills, on Lincoln Square. In the 
same year there was a factory for spinning cotton yarn and a fulling 
mill, by one Hale ; and Moses Clement set up a trip-hammer near 
where Coes's shop now is. All these last named were in what was 
known as Trowbridgeville, until in the year 1812, there was a joyous 
gathering which assembled at a flag raising and formally named 
the precinct New Worcester, and " made a night of it" at Stearns' 
Tavern. At this time there was a grist-mill at the Old Red Mill, 
near where now stands Cromptou's Loom Works. From this time, 
until 1828, there was no particular growth to Worcester industries. 

The especial impetus of 1828 came in the opening of the Blackstone 
Canal, making Worcester more than ever before a central point of 
trade, bringing heavy freights from the seaboard cheaply into the 
heart of the State, and opening an outlet never before offered for 
lumber, wooden ware and farm products. Stores and warehouses 
sprung up about the new canal basin in Worcester. 



146 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

If the canal brought no greater advantage to Worcester, it brought 
one result, neither counted on, nor coveted by its projectors, the 
Boston and Worcester Railroad, whose construction was forced by the 
unwillingness of Boston to lose the business of this section. The 
railroad was opened in 1 M35 ; but by that time there were already 
exhibited tokens of Worcester's destiny as an industrial centre. 

In 1836 there were in Worcester two mills for the manufacture of 
broadcloths, six for satinets, one for cotton sheeting and shirting, 
two for satinet warps, one for pelisse wadding, two paper-mills, 
seven machinery works, a wire mill, an iron foundry, several 
manufactories of sashes and blinds, one lead pipe works, paper 
hangings, cabinet furniture, chairs, brushes, trunks and harnesses, 
ploughs, hats, shoes, watches, umbrellas, cutlery, piano-fortes, 
and wagons. 

Of this brisk growth of 1836 it is recorded, that "three hundred 
buildings were erected in this town within the last two years." 
There were ninety stores and warehouses, twenty cotton, woollen and 
paper-mills, employing over 1500 workmen. It was in this year that 
William Lincoln brought out his History of Worcester. In his 
fidelity to his theme he attempted a formal and careful compilation 
of the facts of Worcester industries. A note at the end of his 
volume is worth giving, both as showing the result of his attempt in 
this direction, and as a statement of experiences apt to be repro- 
duced whenever such essays are made :' — 

" A statement of the condition of the manufactures and mechanic industry 
of any town exhibiting the aggregate amount of capital invested, tlie number 
of li.'inds employed, the sums paid for labor, and the annual quantity and 
value of production in each department would be alike interesting and useful. 
For the purpose of presenting this view of the prosperity of Worcester, 
circular letters were distributed among those engaged in different branches 
of business, soliciting information. Acknowledgments are due to several 
gentlemen who kindly furuished full answers to the enquiries; but unfortu- 
nately some have felt reluctant, even for such general purpose, to communi- 
cate facts; and many under the pressure of their engagements have not 
found time for any reply. The results obtained were so incomplete, that in 
forming an estimate of the whole it would have been necessary to substitute 
conjecture for certainty in filling up many intervals. As the whole value of 
such statistics depends upon that degree of accuracy which it was impractica- 
ble to attain, after much labor and trouble bestowed by others, the compiler 
has been reluctantly compelled to leave the accomplishment of an object so 
desirable to those who may be more fortunate in their efforts for obtaining 
materials." 



WORCESTER OF TO-DAY. 147 

Among the large mass of manuscripts left unedited by the historian, 
now carefully treasured in the collections of the American Antiqua- 
rian Society, great interest attaches to the incomplete returns of 
Mr. Lincoln's labors above referred to. The following interesting 
memoranda are from this source : — 

WOECESTER INDUSTRIES IN 18.36. 

In South Worcester was the White and Boyden factory for the 
manufacture of broadcloths and woollen machinery. The factory 
building was 60 by 30 feet, four stories high, with a machine shop 60 
by 30 feet, a forge and trip hammer shop 60 by 20, with wool house 
and dye house each 18 by 2.5 feet. The partners were Luther White 
and Jubal Boyden. Fifteen hands were employed, with S8.000 value 
of annual product. They made 420 yards of broadcloth weekly and 
sold woollen machinery to amount of §6,000 annually. 

At Northville Nathaniel Eaton & Co. made fine medium print 
paper in a mill 40 by 70, two stories high, owned by F. W. Paine. 

Print paper was also made at the Quinsigamond Mill, William 
Lincoln, Charles Allen and Abram G. Randall, proprietors. Mill 
30 by 50 feet with wings 30 by 30. Made 300 reams per week, with 
four engines and paper machinery. 

At the old Red Mill, broadcloths were made by W. B. Fox & Co. 
(William B. Fox and George T. Rice). Mill 60 by 35, four stories, 
75 yards daily, average value $3.00 per yard. Fifty operatives, one- 
half of thera females. On same premises the firm employed fifteen 
men on sashes, blinds and doors. 

Henry P. Howe employed eight hands in the manufacture of paper 
driers, value of product S15,000 annually. 

Satinets were made at the Tatnuck Factory, 1200 to 1500 yards 
per week ; also at New Worcester by Luther Capron and Nathan R. 
Parkhurst, as Capron & Parkhurst, 1000 to 1200 yards per week; 
also by Benjamin Prentice & Co. (Simeon Burt, Rejoice Newton and 
Benjamin Prentice), a very fine quality, with best machinery, 1100 
yards weekly, averaging SI. 00 per yard; also at Pickford Mill, 
Tatnuck, by Billings Mann for Hemenway & Pratt, 500 yards per 
week. Wadsworth & Fowler on Kettle Brook, in a factory three 
stories high with twenty-five hands and three sets of machinery, 
were making 1500 yards of satinet weekly of average value of 75 
cents per yard. Satinet warps were made by Silas Eldridge, 5000 
yards weekly. 



148 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

Cotton wadding was raade by Stanley & Burgess, six bales daily, 
value about $6.00 per bale. 

At the Court Mills on Lincoln Square, 10.") by 35 feet, with an ell 
of 65 by 40 feet, three stories high with attic, were various industries. 
On lower floor Davis & Howe with twenty-five hands manufactured 
$35,000 worth of wool cards annually. On second floor Kimball & 
Fuller with twenty hands made $20,000 worth of wool siiiuning 
machinery annually. On third floor Fitzroy Willard's loom shop 
turned out $15,000 product annually with fifteen hands. The attic 
was occupied by the varied industries of a loom-reed shop, horse- 
power machines, carpenters' shop, forge, pattern-making and a paint 
shop. The old Court Mills were the cradle of many of our best 
industries, the nurse of some of our best and most successful 
representative men. 

Goulding's machine shop on School Street (Henry Goulding), 
employed forty-eight men on woollen machinery. 

Albert Curtis at New Worcester, in partnership with William 
Henshaw, with twenty hands, made woollen machinery, value $25,000 
annually. 

Tolman & Hunstable (Albert Tolman and Samuel Hunstable), 
occupied a building on Columbian Avenue, now Exchange Street, 
40 by 52 feet, three stories high, for a carriage and harness factory, 
employing twelve hands, annual value of product $20,000. 

Towne, Harrington & Co., as the Worcester Cutlery and German 
Silver Factory, made $7,000 annual product of bowie knives, surgeon's 
instruments, palmleaf splitters and German silver goods. The same 
firm were making a new machine for manufacturing from six to ten 
bushels of shoe pegs daily, with two hands, the invention of one of 
the members of the firm. 

William A. Wheeler's foundry on Thomas Street had more than a 
local reputation, employing twenty-five men, with nearly 700,000 
pounds of castings annually, value $35,000. 

Other names are given in Lincoln's memoranda, as Peckhani & 
Almee, who made $25,000 worth of broadcloth annually ; and Wheeler 
& Whitconib, who made 1,500 yards per week of prime $1.00 satinet ; 
of Osgood Bradley, carriage builder and later car builder ; and Benja- 
min Goddard, carriage maker ; there was also a screw mill, and Marsh 
& Liscom, piano-forte makers ; but by all these, notes were refused to 
the historian, whose review of the Worcester manufactures of 1836, 
therefore, failed as before stated, and is now for the first time 
published in this incomplete form. 



WORCESTER OF TO-DAY. 149 

A note from Ichabod Washburn In his own hand-writing, srivun 
among these returns of 1836, represents the feeling not at all unusual 
in the successful manufacturer. To Mr. Lincoln's inquiry for statis- 
tics of the Worcester wire industry, since so great iu its proportions, 
the founder of the wire enterprise here iu 1834 says : 

"The manufacture of fine wire has been exceedingly difficult, but 
I have succeeded in making an article equally as good as the English ; 
but I have thought best to decline answering most of your questions, 
as the present stage of manufacture has been reached at o-ieat 
expense iu way of experimenting aud is now paying a fair pmflt, 
but will not admit of competition." 



WORCESTER INDUSTRIES IN 1884. 

From the above period the industries of Worcester took a new and 
remarkable growth. It has always been true that the stepping-stones 
of Worcester mechanical enterprise aud ingenuity have been found 
at the foremost line of the world's advance in skill and invention, 
and iu not a few signal instances have first opened the way. 
Probably no city in the country has so great a variety of manufac- 
tures in proportion to its size as Worcester. The machinery used in 
the large factories of various kinds is made here, and similar 
machinery, or that adapted to special industries, is made in shops — 
some employing hundreds of hands, and others of lesser size. A 
peculiarity of the manufacturing system of Worcester is that it is 
conducted in a large degree by private capital, the large coiporaticjus 
being few in number. And of even greater value to the city is the 
fact that all these enterprises, large aud small, with scarcely an 
exception are owned by residents of Worcester. There are several 
com|)anies organized under the general laws of the State, in which 
the stock is wholly or iu great part owned by those who have au 
active part in the conduct of affairs. Worcester offers special 
facilities and advantages for mechanics of small means to establish 
their labor aud prosecute the humbler stages of what in numerous 
instances have grown to be thriving business enterprises. There are 
numerous large shops where room aud power are rented to any 
extent desired. Though the water power of this city has been trebled 
within the past two generations by reservoirs, steam has largely 
displaced it, and less than twenty per cent, of our Worcester indus- 
tries depend solely on water power and do not employ steam. 



: 



150 BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

Many years ago Hon. George S. Bout well in a cattle-show address 
found cause to speak of the Worcester of that time as "combining 
more advantages for successful business than most places in the 
State, among these the variety of employment which prevents any 
entire overthrow of buniness in years of depiression." 

This fact will be strikingly shown by the following review of 
present Worcester industries, which has I)een prepared for these 
pages. It can do little more than illustrate tills great variety, for 
it is not iu the nature of compilations of this kind to be complete 
and satisfactory — few manufacturers desiriog to supply the statistics 
of their business, even for such record. Nevertheless, much of the 
history of Worcester is given or suggested iu this enumeration. 

Agricultural Machinery. 
Corn Shcllers and various farm implements were made by different 
parties in Worcester at early periods iu this century, but the largest 
enterprise in this brauch of manufacture, which stood among the 
foremost in its class and its scale in the country at large, began with 
the establishment of Ruggles, Nourse and Mason (Draper Ruggles, 
Joel Nourse and John C. Mason), of their plow factory in 1836, in 
Lincoln Square, on the site of the old blacksmith shop of Col. 
Timotliy Bigelow of Revolutionary fame. The firm included invent- 
ors and perfecters as well as projectors of a business immense in its 
period. From the manufacture of one hundred plows a year they 
developed in twenty years an annual product of 30,000 plows of 
one hundred and fifty different forms. The successors of this firm 
are still making a large product of agricultural machinery and farming 
tools in this city. Another large manufacturing estalilishment has 
been in operation for several years, with a large business in Buckeye 
Mowers, Hay Tedders, Manure Spreaders and a variety of other 

farm machinery. 

Artist Plates. 

An establishment went into operation in 1855 for the manufacture 

of plates for ferrotypes, also sign plates and the patent maroon 

plate, also wood and metal panels for artists' use. The product 

comprises nearly the whole amount of such goods in use in this 

country. 

Art Publishing. 

A large industry originally growing out of the manufacture of 
Valentines now includes a complete line of Holiday and Gift Cards. 
One hundred and twenty-five operatives. 



WORCESTER OE TO-DAY. 151 

Awls 

Are made at three establishments separately and elsewhere in 
connection with other lines, in every variety for shoemakers and 
for general use. 

Brass, Bronze Metal, &c. 

Three establishments, brass foundries and manufacturers of 
specialties in metal bearings. 

Band Instruments. 
One manufactory of brass band instruments. 

Bale Ties. 

With the substitution of Bessemer steel for iron in wire manu- 
facture the use of bale ties of steel wire has grown to large propor- 
tions, and is a leading wire mill specialty here. 

Barb Wire Fencing. 
The employment of iron and steel wire for fence purposes is 
many years old, but its use as fence material received a new impetus 
from the invention of the sharply pricking barb in 1870. Worcester 
has been made the chief seat of Barb Wire Fence manufacture, 
both by amount of material produced, and the fact tliat this entire 
patent interest is chiefly owned and controlled here. The manufac- 
ture from forty to sixty miles daily of barb wire fencing of various 
kinds is one of the specialties of one of our wire mills, where also 
the principal machines for making barb wire fencing are owned and 
controlled. 

Boots and Shoes. 

Though not the largest of the shoe manufacturing centres of this 
country, Worcester products in this line are not only large in amount, 
but hold a foremost place in quality, meeting the especial demand of 
the northern belt of trade. There are now fourteen establishments 
giving employment to eighteen hundred hands and representing in 
annual product over six millions of dollars. All lines are manu- 
factured, though until a few seasons ago the heavier stock had the 
predominance. The changes since that time have been the introduc- 
tion of advanced machinery for finer work, some of which cannot be 
surpassed in the trade. 

Breweries. 

Though one of our minor industries and only recently undertaken 
on its present scale, the two establishments, both of which have gone 



162 BI-CENTENNIAI. CELEBRATION. 

into operation ttie past season, have a capacity of four hundred 
barrels of ale and porter per week. 

Bronzing Machinks. 

A large machine attachment to printing presses and wherever 
bronze is to be applied, is manufactured in this city and finding good 
introduction. 

Brushes. 

All varieties manufactured, the industry represented in two estab- 
lishments. 

Building Contracts. 

In addition to notes elsewhere in the general line of building 
supplies (see Lumber Manufacture), a Worcester firm, commencing 
operations in 1869, have extended their business until they now stand 
in the foremost rank in the United States as building contractors. 
Their contracts cover from two to three million dollars in value 
annually, for structures generally of a public character, and of the 
best construction. One of their contracts now under way amounts to 
two and a quarter million dollars ($2,250,000), the Allegheny County 
Court House and Jail, at Pittsburg, Pa. Among their recent more 
notable undertakings were the Union Theological Seminary, at New 
York ($300,000) ; Lawrenceville Academy, New Jersey ($325,000) ; 
Library Building, University of Vermont ($100,000) ; Memorial 
Building, Maiden, Mass. ($100,000) ; Jefferson Physical Laboratory, 
Harvard College ; Spiritual Temple, Boston ; the City Hall at 
Albany, N. Y. ; St. James Episcopal Church, New York city. The 
firm are their own executors of their contracts throughout, sub-letting 
no part of their work except plumbing. They own and work the 
quarries from which their brownstone and granite are taken. Their 
lumber-mill and general offices are in this city. 

Cabinet Work. 

Aside from the departments of house furnishing, among several of 
which joiner work is carried to a high degree of excellence, there are 
five establishments for the highest grade of cabinet manufacture, 
some of which is unsurpassed in this country. 

Carders' Tools. 

All varieties of carders' tools and card grinders, with several strong 
specialties, are made at two establishments. 



WORCESTER OF TO-DAY. 153 

Cards. 

This region is tlie origiual seat of the card industry. Haud cards 
were made iii Leicester as early as 1785 by Edmund Snow, but to 
the ingenuity of Pliny Kaile of the same town the great advance of 
the manufacture by machines is chiefly due. Whitney's History in 
1793 says: "tifteen or twenty men, exclusive of women and chil- 
dren," were at that time employed at Leicester in the business of 
sticking wire cards, and from 1'2,000 to 15,000 pairs of cards were 
made annually. William Stowell and Daniel Denny commenced 
making cards in Worcester about 1798. At that time English cards 
held the market. The card industry was a strong stimulant to the 
establishment of the wire niauufacture here. Davis & Howe were 
making wool cards in the lower story of the old Court Mills in 1835, 
employing twenty-five hands, with a business of S35,000 per annum. 
Worcester and Leicester still remain the chief seat of the card manu- 
facture in this country. Out of 1,300 card setting machines in 
operation in the United States more than one-fourth are in Worcester. 
There are four establishments engaged in the business. 

Carpets. 

The manufacture of Brussels carpets began in Worcester in 1870, 
and carpet yarns began at the same time to be manufactured as a 
tributary industry. At present the two Worcester carpet manufacto- 
ries are running an aggregate of eighty-six looms of the Crompton 
and Crossley patterns, witii an average production of 1,000 yards per 
month to each machine, an aggregate of one million yards annually 
of the best grades of Brussels and Wiltou, employing four hundred 
operatives. Within the past year these mills have been increased in 
capacity from forty to fifty per cent. Carpets on United States 
government contracts and for the Pullman Car Company are made 
here in large amounts. (See Worsted Spinning. J 

Carriages. 

Formerly a prominent industry. Lincoln's unpublished notes 
show in 1836, three carriage manufactories in existence here, one of 
them, Tolman & Hunstable, doing a business of $15,000 annually. 
Osgood Bradley was making coaches and large carriages until he 
began car-building. Both these are still carried on by their 
successors, but under a modified form from the changes in the 
12 



154 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

carriage trade which has all over the country done away with the 
smaller shops. Tiie present business shows no large figure beyond 
the work of carriage repairing. At one Worcester establishment the 
specialty of hearses has been prominent for some years. 

Carriage Wood Work. 
Made in extensive variety at two establishments. 
Car Wheels (Se.e Steel WorksJ. 

Chemicals. 

An establishment for the manufacture of copperas and Venetian 
red from the spent acids of the wire factories went into operation on 
a moderate scale in 1877. Its progress may be shown by the compari- 
son of its first year's product with that of the last two seasons. In 
1877 were made one and a quarter million pounds of copperas. In 
the year ending August, 18S3, were made two and a quarter million 
pounds of copperas and half a million pounds of Venetian red ; in 
the year just closed four million pounds of Venetian red and three 
million pounds of copperas. 

Clothes Dryers. 
Two establishments for the manufacture of clothes dryers ; of con- 
siderable repute in the trade. 

CoATEs' Clippers. 

Established 1877 for the manufacture of patent machine clippers for 
barbers' and stable use. Capacity of works doubled witiiin present 
year. The same establishment also mauufacture a new combination 
tool of great merit. 

Coffee Machinery. 

One of our wood-working tnachiuery establishments in South 
Worcester is the sole place of manufacture, in the United States, of 
coffee machinery, now everywhere superseding the English machines 
for separating, polishing and classifying the coffee berry, on the plan- 
tations where it is grown. The business has grown steadily since 
1877. 

Confectionery. 

There are two establishments for the manufacture of confectionery 
for the trade, their products, chietly in staple lines, reaching $100,000 



WORCESTER OF TO-DAY. 155 

value of annual product and giving employment to fifteen hands. 
The business began in this city in 1864. 

Copper Wire. 

Within the past year one of our wire establishments, longest 
engaged in the manufacture of iron and steel telegraph and telephone 
wire, has entered largely into the manufacture of all varieties of 
hand-drawn and soft copper wire for electric purposes. 

Copying Presses. 

An establishment for the manufacture of patent copying presses, 
also for the manufacture of patent drills and Taft's patent shears. 

Corsets. 

The manufacture commenced in Worcester soon after 1861, and 
the era of war prices and a high rate for gold. There are now two 
establishments, employing altogether one thousand hands, the larger 
number being females, and turning out from $600,000 to $1,000,000 
in annual product. The grade of goods is of excellent character. 

Cotton Thrrad. 

Two establishments for the manufacture of all varieties of cotton 
thread, employing on improved machinery about one hundred bands. 

Cutting Dies. 

Growing out of the demands of the envelope and boot and shoe 
industries, and other lines in which cutting dies are employed, the 
manufacture of these implements began in 1860, and now occupies 
two concerns, employing an aggregate of twenty hands, making all 
varieties of dies known to the lines of trade in which they are used. 

Drain Tiles. 

Three establishments, employing from twenty to twenty-five men in 
the manufacture of cement drain tile. 

Drills (See Machine Tools). 

Emery Wheels. 

Patent emery and corundum wheels are made here by the inventor 
and patentee. 



15G- BI-CENTENNIAI. CELEBRATION. 



Elevators. 



Two varieties of elevators are made laere : the hydraulic elevator, 
and a telescopic variety of the same. 

Envelopes. 

The manufacture of euvelopes in this city began with the invention 
of au envelope folding machine by Dr. Russell Hawes in 1846, the 
establishment founded by him being still in existence. The advanced 
perfection of this kind of macliinery has been chiefly realized by 
Worcester genius ; the best envelope machine now in use having 
been invented here in 1871. This city is now the largest point of 
manufacture of staple envelopes. There are three envelope factoiies 
with a daily production of three milliou envelopes, annual value one 
million dollars. Three hundred and fifty hands are employed, chiefly 
females. Envelope machinery manufactured at one of these estab- 
lishments has been seut abroad, though for obvious reasons there is 
little desire or willingness to fit up competing establishments in this 
country. 

Files. 

Three establishments for the manufacture of all varieties of files, 
though the industry is of no extended character. 

Finger Nail Cutters. 

A Worcester novelty of sufficiently wide repute in the trade to give 
employment to a busy enterprise. 

Fire Arms. 

One of our oldest established industries, which in the important 
branch of pistol manufacture, began with the enterprise of Allen & 
Thurber, and all varieties of fire arms except cannon have been 
brought out in our Worcester shops. There are now four establish- 
ments producing rifles, shot guns, carbines and revolvers for military 
and sporting purposes, aud several of these are widely famous 
throughout the world. The industry gives employment in Worcester 
to three hundred and fifty workmen of a highly skilled class, with an 
annual product of $600,000. 

Folding Chairs. 

At the close of the war a large manufacturer of camp chairs in this 
city, by successive patented improvements advanced the article of 



WORCESTER OF TO-DAY. 157 

furniture to the folding chair with such success that one hundred and 
twenty-iive men are employed in its manufacture, with annual sales 
amounting to three hundred thousand dollars. 

Indestructible Soles 

On the Goodrich patent are made by one establishment, an incor- 
poration of metal with the outer sole of heavy goods. 

Iron Manufacture. 

In connection with our largest wire mill, iron is manufactured for 
wire billets, and Swedish iron, by Swedish workmen and Swedish 
processes for the best descriptions of iron wire. 

Iron Foundries. 

Worcester has long been celebrated for its foundry business. In 
1833 one Worcester establishment, still iu the hands of its successors, 
was employing from twenty-two to twenty-five men, producing nearly 
700,000 pounds of iron castiugs, of a value of $35,000. For its 
earlier power horses were resorted to, until the introduction of the 
steam engine. The first stationary steam engine set up in this State 
west of Boston, was put-in use in this foundry (W. A. Wheeler's). 

Iron Lasts. 

The manufacture of iron lasts began here in 1879. There are now 
two establishments giving employment to twenty hands. 

Lasts. 

The manufacture of lasts began here in 1855. Two establishments 
produce 8125,000 in value, the material used being rock maple from 
the forests of northern New England. 

Leather Bleach 
For bleaching the bottoms of boots and shoes, one manufactory. 

Leather Belting. 

Three establishments. The oldest founded in 1852, using only 
leather from its own large tannery in this city, one of the largest in 
this State. In the three concerns one hundred men are employed. 
Total value of product $500,000. 



158 BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

Lkather Machinery. 

One establishuieut manufactures ten different machines for leather 
work, employs twenty-live men ; annual product $50,000. 

Looms. 

Tlie lirst loom factory ever erected for the manufacture of power 
looms in this co\mtry, went into oi)eration in Worcester, on tlie same 
premises with our first wire mill, in 18:U. The power loom industry 
of Worcester is now represented by three establishments, with an 
annual product of $2, .000,000, and the employment of eight hundred 
hands. Worcester looms are known throughout the world. It is 
one of our oldest industries. lu 1804 the Stowell Brothers had in 
operation six looms of their own invention and manufacture for 
weaving carpets and plaids. The elder Crompton after he began the 
manufacture of fancy looms in Worcester, not only sold the machines 
but as an expert weaver went about giving instruction in their use. 

Machine Knives (See Wrenches). 

Machine Screws. 

Three establishments. Two of them on an extensive scale manu- 
facture machine screws. With one of these, case-hardened nuts are a 
specialty. 

Machine Tools. 

There are now fifteen establishments for the manufacture of all 
varieties of metal-working machinery, a department of industry in 
which Worcester is now the second city in the United States, Phila- 
delphia alone leading. The product from the heaviest machinery to 
the lightest has an annual value of $1,500,000, and gives employ- 
ment to eight hundred and fifty men. Our shops are the favorite 
resort for experimental machinery sought by inventors. The manu- 
facture of machinery began at a very early period in the history of 
our local industries, but has grown most rapidly since the adoption 
of steam power. (For machinery applicable to specialties of manu- 
facture see under separate heads) . Of the machine tools made in 
Worcester, over one-lialf the product is sold through commission 
houses in the larger centres. 

Malleable Iron. 

Two estalilishments, employing a total of one hundred and seveuty- 
five men, with an annual product of $200,000 value, contributing to 



WORCESTER OF TO-DAY. 159 

a wide variety of nianiifactuies. The older of these concerns has 
been in operation almost from the first employment of this line of 
iron work. 

Marble Works. 
There are three principal and several smaller establishments for all 
varieties of marble and ornamental and monnmental stone cutting, 
employing in all nearly one hundred workmen. 

Metal Punching. 
In addition to what is found as the adjunct of some of the larger 
shops, all varieties of metal punching are carried on in two very 
complete establishments. 

Nickel Plating. 
Three exclusive establishments, and two others connected with 
other manufactures, turn out a large amount of nickel plated goods. 

Organs. 

A prominent industry. There are five establishments, giving 
employment to five hundred operatives, producing 6,000 organs 
annually, of an aggregate value of $400,000. These instruments of 
Worcester manufacture have a very wide reputation and are sent to 
all parts of the world. Organettes are also made at two establish- 
ments. 

Organ Reeds. 

This city has become a principal point of manufacture, the business 
being carried on in three large establishments, employing three 
hundred and fifty hands, with a total annual product amounting to 
$600,000. This business began here in 1859. 

Paper Machinery. 
The first paper machinery made in Worcester was built by Howe & 
Goddard in 1838, in the basement of the old Red Mill, a fire drying 
machine, a large cylinder with a stove in the centre, the invention of 
Henry P. Howe. The same firm also built cylinder and Fourdrinier 
machines. This business, now in the hands of the immediate 
successors of the first named firm, is now a prosperous one, and the 
best paper-mills in the United States are supplied largely from this 
Worcester establishment, among whose leading specialties is paper 
machinery. 



160 BT-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

Perforated Metai.s 
Are made at one establishment. 

Presses. 
An extensive establishment for the manufacture of Patent Knuckle 
Joint Presses ia one hundred varieties, for hand and power. Annual 
value of product $40,000. At two other large establishments are 
made various kinds of power presses. 

Railway Cars. 
A Worcester coach and carriage manufactory became one of the 
pioneer railway car shops in this country, at so early a period that 
the earliest cars brought out were hauled to Boston over the turnpike 
in 1833. The first cars built here were after foreign patterns. Some 
of the earliest improvements, constituting the American features of 
car construction, were brought out in Worcester. Present capacity 
of the shops, six passenger cars per month and two freight cars a day. 

Razors. 
From a very modest beginning the enterprise of making razors and 
razor strops, now a widely famous Worcester specialty, has grown 
to the full occupancy of a large factory building. Forty hands are 
employed on razors and sixty on razor strops. 

Refrigerators. 
Since 1865 there has been in successful operation an establishment 
for the manufacture of all classes of refrigerators, of which from 
eight hundred to one thousand are made annually. 

Reeds and Harness. 
Made at two establishments. 

Railroad Frogs and Switches. 
One manufactory. 

Satinets. 

By reference to notes already given of earlier epochs of manufac- 
ture, it will be seen that satinets were early made here, as filling a 
demand for cheap fabrics. There are now five establishments with a 
product of five thousand yards weekly. 

Skates. 
One concern exclusively employed on ice and roller skates employs 
two hundred hands, and has an annual production of $300,000 value. 



WORCESTER OF TO-BAY. 161 

It began on a small scale iu 1872, and is now in the foremost rank of 
the roller skate industry in this country. Ice and roller skates are 
also made by contract in other establishments, but to no figure 
comparing with the above. 

Slippers. 

There are two establishments for the manufacture of slippers 
exclusively; web and carpet slippers, and buck slippers are made, 
also heel protectors and bound cork soles. 

Soaps. 

Though not one of our larger industries, one establishment founded 
in 1878 has built up a large business in its toilet soaps, and lias 
doubled its capacity within the present year. 

Steam Boilers. 

There are three establishments for the manufacture of boilers. 
One of these is widely known and its product is sent to all parts of 
the country and to foreign lands. The total annual product is 
$500,000. 

Steam Engines. 

Four establishments, and their product is of wide repute. A steam 
engine of Worcester manufacture received the grand prize at the 
Paris Exposition of 1878. Tliough not in its aggregate among our 
leading industries the annual value of the totaj product is from 
$250,000 to $300,000. 

Steel. 

One of the oldest and most widely known establishments in 
Worcester, originally founded in 1S48 for the manufacture of patent 
car wheels, and later known in connection with the same industry as 
a rail mill, first for re-rolling, and since 1882 for rolling imported 
steel blooms; in 1884 put in two four-ton Bessemer converters with 
blooming train and blowing engines, making their own ingots 
from English West Coast Bessemer Iron, and manufacturing rails, 
billets, rods, nail plates, brake beams, and also steel blooms and 
billets for the trade. The converter capacity is two hundred tons 
every twenty-four hours. The manufacturing premises immediately 
adjoin the largest railway freight yard in this city. Three hundred 
men employed. 



162 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

Tacks and Staples. 
A mauiifactuiiug establishment has gone into operation the present 
year for the manufacture of all varieties of double pointed tacks and 
staples from flat steel wire. 

Tape and Elastics. 

The manufacture began in Worcester about 1875 with the business 
of spool tapes, since extended until it covers every variety of narrow 
loom webs, elastic frills, non-elastic webs, spool tapes ; the goods of 
high grade in both silk and cotton. This establishment is now 
running sixty of the Knowles Narrow Fabric Looms. 

Telegraph and Telephone Wire. 

Worcester wire industry was resorted to at the very outset of the 
telegraph enterprise in this couutry, and Worcester iron telegraph 
wire supplied the equipment of some of the earliest successful lines of 
telegraph in the United States. The annual product of galvanized 
iron and steel telegraph and telephone wu-e is now very large, the 
product being sent to all parts of the world. 

Turbine Wheels. 

Within the past two seasons, the extensive plant being yet 
incomplete, there has been established here one of the largest 
manufactories in the country for turbine wheels and mill machinery. 
One hundred and seventy-five men employed. 

Twisting Macuineky 

Of an entirely novel construction, first brought out by the inventor 
here, gives employment to twenty-five hands on machinery for the 
manufacture and twisting of all kinds of lines, twine and cordage. 

Type Writers. 

The manufacture of type writers has been entered upon atone of our 
large manufacturing establishments within the past twelve months. 

Wood- Working Machinert. 

This region was early a location for saw mills, the first improve- 
ment of water power being for that purpose. Capt. Wing's saw- 



WORCESTER OF TO-DAY. 1G3 

mill ou Mill Brook a little north of what is now Lincoln Square. 
Though circular saws were said to have been known in Holland 
many years before, they did not come into use in Englau'l until 1777. 
It is claimed confidently that the circular saw was first used in this 
country in Worcester County for the manufacture of lumber, and 
Lewis Brown is believed to have operated the first circular saw in 
Worcester, at the old Red Mill, where now are the Crompton Loom 
Works. William T. Merrifield, one of our best known citizens, 
built the first steam saw mill in Worcester County, using circular 
saws for cutting logs in 1842, at Princeton. In other directions the 
manufacture and employment of wood-working machinery dates from 
an early day in Worcester. Abel Stowell constructed in 1810 a 
machine for cutting wooden screws. The Daniels Planer, the 
invention of Thomas E. Daniels of this city, was brought out iu 
1835, and the manufacture at the old Court Mills. H. C. Wight of 
this city, in 1848, invented a matching machine of great utility and 
still iu use. There are now three large establishments in this city, 
each of which has its own specialties, besides the supply of what 
have become the staple tools in wood-working machinery. 

Watch Springs. 
A development of product carried to high perfection in one of 
our wire mills. Spectacle and eye glass springs, and every variety 
of flat steel springs are also produced. 

Water Meters. 
Beginning in 1868 a large industry has grown up in Worcester in 
the manufacture of water meters, the use of which has largely grown 
within the [last few seasons in all our cities and large centres. The 
Ball & Fitts Piston Meter, the Fitts Rotary Meter, Duplex Piston 
Meter and the Desper Meter are made here. 

Wind Engine. 
A windmill of approved construction, invented and manufactured 
here, is very widely in use. The manufacture commenced in 1879. 

Wire. 

Two wire drawing establishments, with a joint product of two 

hundred tons of finished iron, copper and steel wire daily, a total 

annual product of eight million dollars. One of these Worcester 

wire mills, established in 1834, is the largest exclusive wire mill in 



16i BI-CENTEISWIAL CELEBRATION. 

the world. One hundred and twenty-five, or more, varieties of iron 
and steel wire are made in these mills, contributing to a large number 
of manufacturing industries. Among the leading specialties of our 
wire industry are barb wire, telegraph and telephone wire, wire rope, 
bale ties, watch springs, covered corset and crinoline wire, pump 
chain, wire rods, which see under separate heads. The manufacture 
of copper wire for electric and general purposes has been extensively 
entered upon this season, which see elsewhere. 

Wire Goods. 
The manufacture of iron wire in this vicinity (See Wire) early 
stimulated enterprise for the consumption of such product. In the 
same year, 1834, which saw the founding of what is now our princi- 
pal wire mill, Jabez Bigelow began on Front Street the making of 
wire cloth sieves, riddles, rat traps, and a variety of small wares and 
specialties in wire goods. The original enterprise is still in the 
hands of his successors and the business has grown to very large 
dimensions. There are now three concerns for the manufacture of 
wire goods, covering a very large list of articles of a staple and 
permanent utility and value. The business is a very strong one, and 
Worcester has found this adjunct and development of the wire 
business steadily growing and permanently prosperous. 

Wire Rope. 
The employment of steel wire for ropes and cables for general 
lifting and hoisting pur|)o8es has been carried to large proportions by 
the great increase in the number of elevators in buildings of all 
classes, as well as the development of hoisting machinery in mines 
and quarries. One of our wire mills has just completed a separate 
extensive department for the manufacture of all kinds of steel rope 
from small wire cordage to larger cables. 

Wire Springs. 
A large establishment, with a substantial four-story brick factory, 
erected in the summer of 1884, has gone into operation for the 
manufacture of all varieties of w'\re springs, with improved machinery. 
Twenty-five hands employed. 

Wood Turning. 
Four establishments, employing thirty-five men, with a product of 
from $3,500 to $4,000 per month, producing all varieties of wood 
turning in regular and irregular forms. 



WORCESTER OF. TO-DAY. 165 

Woolen Goods. 

In 1804 the ingenious and enterprising Stowells were weaving 
carpets and plaids in Worcester, using six looms of tlieir own 
invention and manufacture. In 1836 there were two mills here for 
the manufacture of broadcloth. One of these, that of Wm. li. Fo.x 
and George T. Rice, with fifty operatives and a product of five hun- 
dred yards weekly. There are now two woollen mills, the Worcester 
Woollen Mill, manufacturing fine and medium cassiraeres, two hun- 
dred and twenty-five men, with a product of $400,000 annually. 
Another establishment inns thirty-four looms exclusively on beaver 
cloths, with a product of $350,000 per year. 

Worsted Goods. 

The manufacture of worsted goods began hei'e in 187ti. There are 
now two establishments from the same root, with an aggregate of one 
hundred and five looms, running on worsted suitings for men's wear, 
ladies' cloakings, &c., using Worcester fancy looms. Weekly 
product of six thousand yards, with average value of $8, .500, or about 
$3.50,000 annually. As stated in another connection one of these 
mills spins its own yarn. 

WoKSTED Spinning. 

The industry of worsted yarn spinning grew out of the carpet 
manufacture. There are now three spinning mills, one of these 
burned the jiresent year is being rebuilt. Spinning began here with 
twelve frames about 1872. There are now forty-four frames with 
si.x thousand five hundred spindles and three hundred and sixty 
operatives, which is an increase of nearly one-third within the past 
twelve mouths. Two of these mills aie employed exclusively on 
carpet yarns, the third has especial connection with an adjoining 
worsted manufactory. 

Wrenches. 

The manufacture of hand wrenches began in 1841 and has proved 
a widely recognized and successful branch of Worcester industry. 
There are now two establishments from the same parent root, whose 
total annual product is $400,000. At one of these only wrenches are 
made, at the other also shear blades and cutter knives. 



I 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



The following list comprises the titles of books and pamphlets 
containing historical information in relation to the town and city of 
Worcester, which have come to the notice of the compiler. Undoubt- 
edly some titles have been omitted which should appear in such a list, 
and there are many biographical and memorial publications containing 
more or less local history which have been excluded as not coming 
within the proposed plan. 

The annual town and city documents, reports of societies and of 
other local organizations, with the historical notes which have been 
published in the newspapers from time to time, give much valuable 
information, but any enumeration of them would far exceed the limits 
of this list. 

The compiler has most of the books and pamphlets mentioned, 
in his own collection, but has received additions of scarce titles from 
the American Antiquarian Society and the Free Public Library. 

The list of maps of Worcester given in connection with the local 
history is intended to cover only such as have been published in 
separate form, and does not include those expressly prepared for 
book publications. A few scarce manuscript maps are noticed as 
being of special historical value. 

The list of views of Worcester contains only engraved or photo- 
graphic views of the whole town or city, which have been offered for 
public sale. This bibliography has been prepared with the hope that 
it may prove of value to futui-e students of our local history. 



The Worcester Magazine. From the first week in April, 1786, to the fourth week in 
March, 1788. Published by I. Thomas. 

This was publislieii iustead otllie Massachusetts Spy, which was suspended on 
accouut of the tax on newspapers. 

A Topographical Description of the Town of Worcester in 1792. Communicated by 
Timothy Paine, William Youug, Edward Bangs, Esqrs., and Dr. Samuel Stearns, 
to the Massachusetts Historical Society. Published in Volume first of the Proceed- 
ings of that Society, pp. 112-116. Boston, 1792. 



168 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

History of the County of Worcester. Hy Peter Whitney ; with a map. 8vo. pp. 
339. Worcester. Printed hy Isaiiili Thomas, 1793. 

An .\(ldress delivered at Worcester (Mass.), on tlie 21st of Oetoher, ISO", before the 
Hon. Major General, the Hriffadiers, Field and .Stall' Officers, and Officers of the 
Line, of the Seventh Division of the INIilitia of Massachusetts. By Major Levi 
Lincoln. Jr. pp. 12. Worcester. Printed by Henry Rogers, 1S07. 

Sermon at Worcester, January H, l.SU, with historical notes. By Aaron Bancroft, 
D.D. Kvo. pp.24. Worcester, ISU. 

Origin and Progress of the Late Difficulties in the Piist Church, Worcester. 8vo. 
pp KS. Worcester, 1820. 

Result of a Mutual Ecclesiastical Council convened at Worcester, November 14, 1820, 
to consider the expediency of granting the request of the Rev. Charles A. Goodrich 
lobe dismissed from the pastoral care of the First Church and Parish in Worcester. 
8vo. pp. 10. Printed hy Manning and Trumbull. December, 1S20. 

Remarks on the Late Pulilicalions of the First Church in Worcester, of which the 
Rev. Charles A. Goodrich was pastor, relative to the "Origin and Progress of 
Difficulties" in that Church, pp. 103. Worcester. Printed by Manning and 
Trumbull. January, 1S21. 

An Address, delivered at the Dedication of the Town Hall in Worcester, the 2d day 
of May, 1825. By John Davis. 8vo. pp. 36. Worcester. Printed by AVilliam 
Manning, 1825. 

Worcester Magazine and Historical Journal. Edited by William Lincoln and 
Christopher C. Baldwin. 2 Vols. 8vo. Worcester, 1826-27. 

Discourse delivered before the Second Congregational Society, Worcester, 8th day of 
April, 1827. By A. Bancroft, D.D. 8vo. pp. 20. Charles Griffin. Worcester, 
1827. 

The Worcester Talisman; a literary and miscellaneous journal; one volume. April 5, 
1828, to March 21, 1829. (In April. 1S28, and January, 1829, a Village Register 
was prepared to accompany the Talisman). Published by Dorr & Howlaud. 

1828-29. 

Worcester Village Directory, containing the names of the inhabitants, their dwelling- 
houses and places of business, — arranged according to the streets and squares. 
To accompany a map of the Village of Worcester. 24mo. pp. 12. Worcester. 
Published by Clarendon Harris, 1829. (A reprint of the Directory was published 
by Tyler & Seagrave in 1872.) 

A Geography of AVorcester County for Young Children, etc. By James G. Carter 
and Wm. H. Brooks. 24mo. Illustrated, pp. 66. Lancaster, 1830. (Contains a 
brief notice of Worcester, with cuts.) 

An Address to the Members of the Bar of Worcester County, October 2d, 1829. By 
Joseph Willard. 8vo. pp. 144. Lancaster, 1830. 

A Sermon delivered in Worcester, January 31, 1836. By Aaron Bancroft, D.D. , at 
the termination of Fifty Years of his Ministry. 8vo. pp. 44. Worcester, 
C. Harris. 1836. 

History of Worcester, Mass., from its Earliest Settlement to September, 1S36. By 
William Lincoln. 8vo. pp. 3.84. Worcester, Moses D. Phillips &, Co., 1837. This 
was reprinted in 1862, with the history from 1836 to 1861, by Charles Mersey. 



^ 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 169 

Address at the Consecration of the Worcester Rural Cemetery, September 8, 1838. 
By Levi Lincoln. 8vo. pp. 30. Bostou, 1838. 

Historiciil Slietch of Worcester, in " Barber's Historical Collections of Massachusetts." 
pp. 618 to 621. Worcester, 1839. (Another Edition in 1811.) 

Address at the opening of the New Court House iu Worcester, .Se|)t. 30. 181.3, by 
Lemuel Shaw. 8vo. Worcester, 1S45. 

Valuation and Taxes of the Town of Worcester iu 1816 (c.oulains the names of most 
of the property holders at that date). Svo. pp. 10. By Thornton A. Merrick. 
Bo.ston, 1816. 

Proceedings of a Public Meeting of the Inhaliitauts of Worcest<'r, August 28, 1817, 
upou the subject of the Passenger Depot of the Western Kuilroad in Worcester. 
Svo. pp. 24. Worcester, 1817. 

Epiiaphs from the Cemetery on Worcester Common, with occasional notes, references 
and au index. By William S. Barton. 8vo. pp. 36. Worcester, 1818. 

Worcester in 1850. With an historical sketch and a maji of the city. Henry J. How- 
land. 12mo. Worcester, 1850. 

The Worcester Pulpit; with notices, historical and biographical. By Rev. E. 
Smalley, D.D. pp. 562. Boston, Phillips, Sampson & Co., 1851. 

The Citizens and Strangers' Guide iu the City of Worcester, with a map of the city 
Sm. 4to. pp. 27. n. d. 

A Discourse delivered at the Dedication of the Meeting-house of the Second Congre- 
gational Society iu Worcester. Svo. jip- 55. By Rev. Alonzo Hill. Worcester, 
Andrew Hutchinson, 1851. 

Manual of the Old South Church, Worcester. 16mo. pp.31. (With brief history 
of the Church.) Worcester, 1854. (Editions were also published in 1864 and 1877.) 

Carl's Tour iu Main Street. Published in the Worcester Palladium, 1855, also in 
1857-5S and in 1874, in 32 chapters. This is a notice of the more prominent houses 
on Main Street as they were twenty years before, with much historical and 
biographical information. By J. S. C. Knovvlton. The material for this publication 
was collected by Clarendon Wheelock. 

Address at the Social Festival of the Bar of Worcester County, February 7, 1856. 
By Emory Washburn. Svo. pp. 73. Worcester, 1856. 

The Heart of the Commonwealth; or, Worcester as it is iu 1856; with au historical 
notice of the town. pp. 131. H. J. Howlaud, 1856. 

The Farewell to the Old School-house and Dedication of the New, at New Worcester, 
July 26, and August 30, 1858. pp. 30. 1858. 

Reminiscences of the Military Life and Suiferings of Col. Timothy Bigelow, Com- 
mander of the Fifteenth Regiment of the Massachusetts Line in the Continental 
Army, during the War of the Revolution. By Charles Hersey. pp. 24. Worces- 
ter, 1860. 

Ceremonies at the Dedication of the Bigelow Monument. Worcester, Mass., April 
19, 1861. Svo. pp. 37. Boston, John Wilson & Son, 1861. 

Historical Sketch of the Worcester County Mechanics Association. 12mo. pp. 70. 
Worcester. 1861. 

13 



170 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

Fiske'K Pocket Business Manual of the City of Worcester. 34mo. Worcester, 1862. 
and 1S63. . 

An Historical Discourse on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the First Baptist Church in 
AVorcestcr, December 9th. I.S()2, with an .ipjipndix. By T.saao Davis. Svo. pp.52. 
Worcester, ISm. 

An Historical Discourse cleli\crcii at Worcester in the Old South Meeting House, 
September 22, 1S6.S; tlie Ilumhedlh Anniversary of its Erection. By Leonard 
Bacon, D.D. With inlnnUidory remarks by Hon. Ira M. Barton. Svo. pp. 106. 
Worcester. 1863. 

Manual of the First Church in Worcester, with historical notes, pp. 41. Worcester, 

• 1864. 

Services at the Inst;illati(in of Kev. B. F. Bowles as Pastor of the First Universalist 
Society, Worcester, Mass.. and the Twenty-fifth Anniversary Exercises, October 
10, 1806. Historical Address by Rev. S. P. Landers. Svo. pp. 52. Tyler and 
Seagrave, 1866. 

The Worcester Association and its Antecedents; a History of Four Ministerial 
Associations, with biographical notes. (Notices of Unitarian ministers in Worces- 
ter). By Rev. Joseph Allen. 12mo. pp.426. Boston, 1S6S. 

Historical Discourse on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Worcester Baptist Associa- 
tion. September 22, 1869. By I{ev. David Weston. Svo. pp. 26. Worcester, 
1809. 

The Pastor's Record ; a sermon preached March 28, 1807, before the Second Congrega- 
tional Society in Worcester, on the Fortieth Anniversary of his Settlement. By 
Rev. Alonzo Hill. 8vo. pi>. 06. Cambridge, 1867. 

Reminiscences of the Original Associates and Past Members of the Worcester Fire 

Society. By Levi Lincoln and Isaac Davis. Svo. pp. 72. Printed for the Society. 

Worcester, 1870. 
Atlas of the City of Worcester, Worcester County, Mass. From actual surveys by 

and under the direction of F. W. Beers. Large quarto, iip. 33. 19 maps. New 

York, 1870. 
History of Worcester in the War of the Rebellion. By A. P. Marvin. 8vo. pp. 

582. " Worcester, 1870. (Second Edition, 1880.) 

Historical Address before the Lyceum and Natural History Association. May 17, 

1870. By Nathaniel Paine, pp. xx-14. Worcester, 1870. 

Business Men of Worcester Fifty Years Ago. By Caleb A. Wall. Published in the 

Worcester Daily Spy. 1870. 
Worcester High School. Dedication of the New High School-house, December 30, 

1871. Svo. pp. 62. Worcester, 1871. 

Photographs of School-houses and other Institutions in Worcester, Mass., U. S. A. 
With brief descriptions of the buildings and som<' account of various institutions in 
the city. Compiled by Albert P. Marble, Superintendent of Public Schools. 
Oblong 4to. pp. 10, and 29 photographs. Worcester, 1873. 

Memoir of Isaiah Thomas, by his grandson, Benjamin Franklin Thoma,s. Svo. 
pp. 73. Privately printed. Boston, 1874. (This was also printed in Thomas's 
History of Printing, second edition.) 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 171 

Reminiscences of the Past Members of the Worcester Fire Society. By Benjamin F. 
Thomas and Isaac Davis. Svo. pp. 49. Printed for the Society. AVorcester, 1874. 

Dedication of the Soldiers' Monument at Worcester, Massachusetts, July 15, A. D. 
1874. Svo. pp. 90. Printed by Order of the Monument Committee. Worcester, 
1875. 

Worcester Illustrated. (Pamphlet.) Svo. pp. .56. .lames A. Ambler Co. Worces- 
ter, 1875. 

History of the Worcester Choral Union. 16mo. pp. 2s. Worcester, 1875. 

Account of the Worcester Lyceum and Natural History Association. By Nathaniel 
Paine, pp. 12. Worcester, 187fi. 

Portraits and Busts in possession of the .Vmericau Antiquarian Society and other 
Associations in Worcester, Mass. By Nathaniel Paine. Svo. pp. 7. Boston, 
1876. (Reprinted from the Historic-Genealogical Register.) 

Worcester in the War of the Revolution, embracing the Acts of the Town from 1765 
to 1783 inclusive. Svo. pp. 128. Albert A. Lovell. Worcester. 1876. 

Celebration by the Inhabitants of Worcester, Mass., of the Centennial Anniversary 
of the De<laration of Independence, .July 4, 1S70. To which are added Historical 
and Chronological Notes, pp.146. Printed by order of the City Council. Worces- 
ter, 1S76. 

Notes, Historical and Chronological on the Town of Worcester, Mass. By Nathaniel 
Paine. Thirty-five copies printed for private distribution. Large Svo. pp. 50. 
Worcester, 1S76. Most of the matter wa-s printed in the last named volume. 

Worcester in the International Exhibition of 1876. A series of fourteen or fifteen 
papers giving a brief account of the principal educational institutions, associations, 
etc., of Worcester. Worcester, 1876. 

Tables showing Population, Valuation, etc., of Worcester, 1S50-1S76. Svo. pp. 16. 

Worcester, 1876. 
Historical Sketch of College of Holy Cross. Svo. pp. 20. Worcester, 1876. 

Report on the Worcester Schools, 1876. Contains an historical sketch of the Public 
Schools in Worcester. Svo. Worcester, 1877. 

Historical Sketch of the First Baptist Church, Worcester. By Rev. B. D. Marshall. 
Svo. pp. 17. Worcester, 1877. 

Keminisiences of Worcester; from the earliest period; historical and genealogical. 
With notices of early settlers and prominent citizens, etc. pp. 392. By Caleb A. 
Wall. Worcester, 1877. 

Report of the .Joint Committi-e of the City tlouucil of Worcester on Rebuilding the 
Lynde Brook Dam. A complete history of the Worcester Water Works from 1722 
to 1877, by Clark Jillson, 1877. 4to. pp. 86. Press of Clark .Jillson, 1877. 

Manual of the Calvinist Church, Worcester, Mass. (with historical notes). Sm. Svo. 
pp. 27. 1877. 

Company Proceedings of the Worcester Continentals, 1876-1878. By G. H. Harlow, 
Clerk. Svo. pp. 40. Worcester, 1878. 

Historical Remarks concerning the Mechanic Street Burial Ground in the City of 
Worcester, offered to the Joint Committee of the Legislature of Massachusetts, 
March 14. 1878. By Rev. George Allen. Worcester, 1878. pp. 17. 



172 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

The JiUinber Business of Worcester. By Ellery B. Crane, pp. 13-33— Proceedings 
of tlie Worcester Society of Antiquity fur 1S7S. 

History of tlic Blackstone Canal. By Israel l'luinni<T. pp. 41 -.50— Proceedings of 
tlie Worcester Society of Antiquity for 1S7.S. 

Tlie liutnian Riot, October 30, ISSl. By Albert Tyler, pp. s."i-91r— Proceedings of 
the Worcester Society of Antiquity for ISTK. 

Inscriptions from the Old Burial (i rounds in Worcester, Massachusetts, from 1727 to 
l«.j9. With biographical and historical notes. Published by the Worcester Society 
of Antiiiuity. 1S7!). Svo. pp. 160. 

Report on Local History and Genealogy; contains history of the Foster Street 
Extension and removal of the Depot of the Boston and Worcester Railroad. By 
Ellery B. Crane, pp. S7-103.— Proceedings of the Worcester Society of Antiquity 
for 1S79. 

Early Records of the Town of Worcester. Book I. 1722-1739. Published by the 
Worcester Society of Antiquity. Svo. pp. U2. [Edited by Franklin P. Rice.] 
[22.5 copies.] Worcester, 1S79. 

Addresses Before the Members of tlu^ Bar of Worcester County, Mass.: By Joseph 
Willard, 1!S29; Emory AVashburn. 18.5G; Dwight Foster. 1S7S; with a List of 
Members of the Bar. 8vo. pp. 250. Worcester, 1879. 

History of Worcester County; edited by A. P. JIarvin. 2 vols. 4to. Boston, 1879. 
(Contains History of the City of Wor(est<'r. by Charles A. Chase. A'ol. II. 
pp. 548-667.) 

The Trade of Worcester during the Present Century. By Henry H. Chamlnrlin. 
pp. 27-38 — Proceedings of the Worcester Society of Antiquity. I8sO. 

Early Records of the Town of Worcester. Book II. 1740-17.53. Pulilished by the 
Worcester Society of Antiquity. 8vo. pp. 145. [Edited by Franklin P. Kice.] 
[250 copies.] 1880. 

Historical Sketch of the Central Society in Worcester, etc. Svo. pp. 30. 1880. 

Illustrated Business Guide of the City of Worcester, Mass., arranged by streets, with 
the number, name of firm and of business of all business houses in Worcester; 
too'ether with a brief description of all points of interest, and views of public and 
private buildings. 4to. pp. 171. Snow, Woodman & Co. Worcester, 1880. 

Records of the Proprietors of Worcester, Massachusetts. Edited by Franklin P. 

Rice. [With nearly 300 plans.] Published by the Worcester Society of Antiquity. 

Svo. pp.336. [2.50 copies.] 1881. 
Shays's Rebellion. By Ellery B. Crane, pp. 61-111— Proceedings of the Worcester 

Society of Antiquity for 1881. 
Worcester Town Records from 1753 to 1783. Edited by Franklin P. Rice. Published 

by the Worcester Society of Antiquity. Svo. pp. 472. [300 copies.] 1882. 

The Worcester Manufacturer; containing a complete list of the manufacturers, 
statistics of consumption and production, capital invested, hands employed, wages 
paid, and much other information of the city of Worcester. Svo. pp. .56. 
F. S. Blanchard & Co. 1882. 

Records of the Court of General Sessions of the Peace for the County of Worcester, 
Massachusetts, from 1731 to 1737. Edited by Franklin P. Bice. Published by the 
Worcester Society of Antiquity. 8vo. p]). 197. [225 copies.] 1883. 



BIBLIOGRAPHT. 173 

Transactions of the Worcester Agi'icultura! Society with reference to the New 
England Fair held in Worcester from 1S78 to 1S82. Printed by order of the 
Trustees. Worcester, 1883. 

Worcester Vest Pocket Guide, pp. 9G. Moses King, Cambridge, n. d. (1883.) 

Kalender of ver Svenskarne i Worcester. Utgifven af Zetterman och Lfttt, Worcester, 
Mass., Utglfvarnes Forlag, 1883. (First Swedish directory of Worcester.) 

Theatres and Public Halls of Worcester, witli plans. 12mo. Putnam it Davis. 
1880 and 1883. 

Gleanings from the Sources of History of the Second Parish, Worcester. Massacliu- 
setls. By Samuel S. Green, pp. 22. Worcester, 1883. 

The Worcester Book: a Diary of Noteworthy Events in Worcester, Massachusetts, 
from 1657 to 1.SS3. By Franklin P. Rice. Svo. Illustrated, pp. 159. 1SS4. 

The Early Settlements of Worcester. By Francis E. Blake. 8vo. pp. 33. Printed 
by F. P. Rice. 1884. 

Historical Sketch of the Worcester County Musical Association. By Samuel E. 
Staples. 8VO. pp. 26. 1884. 

An Episode of Worcester History. By Nathaniel Paine. Svo. pp. 9. 1884. 

Random Recollections of Worcester. 1839-1843. By Nathaniel Paine. 8vo. pp. 46. 
Worcester, 18S5. 

[Directories of Worcester have been issued annually since 1843, and many of them 
contain valuable historical information. Plans of the town and city are published 
in connection with many of the Directories] . 

October 15, 1884, the day of the celebration of Worcester's Bi-Centenuial, two news- 
papers were published, each containing historical notes on Worcester, as well as 
advertising matter: Worcester Bi-Centennial; printed and published by F. S. 
Blanchard & C'o. ; folio, with several illustrations. Also, Worcester's 200 Anniver- 
sary ; folio, published by H. R. Cumraings. 



MAPS AND VIEWS OF WORCESTER. 



A manuscript map of the town in 1784, by Wm. Toung.t 

A copy of a manuscript map in the Secretary of State's Oflice, Boston, m;ide by order 
of the town in 1794.t 

MS. plan of the town of Worcester, from a survey made in Nov., 1825. By Caleb 
Butler. At City Clerk's Office. 

A map of the village of Worcester. By Ed. E. Pheliis. M.D.. Civil Engineer. .luly. 
1829. Published by C. Harris. Carter, Andrews ,t Co., So. Lancaster. (This 
map has views of the Old South Chnrch and other publico buildings in the njargin.) 

A manuscript map of the town of Worcester in 1829. (Publisher not given. )t 



t In library of American Antiquarian Society. 



174 BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

A map of Worcester, shire town of the County of Worcester. By H. Stcbbins. 
Published by C. Harris, IS.'?:?. (This map hius in one corner a small plan of the 
village of Worcester, also views of several public buildings.) 

MS. map of the town. Has location of old roads and many of the dwellins;-houscs. 
Probably made for Wm. Lincoln, the historian, n. d.t 

Map of the City of Worcester, from Orisrinal Surveys by IT. F. Wallinsr. Published 
by Warren Lazell. 1851. 

Map of the City of Worcester. Published by Jenkins & Whitcomb, 235 Main 
Street, n.d. 

Map of the City of Worcester. C. W. P.iirbank, 1S72. 

Larsre map of the City of Worcester. Published by Smith & McKinncy, from 
surveys of P. Ball. Engraved by A.Prentiss, n.d. (Has several views of public 
buildings.) 

Map i)f the City of Worcester, Mass. Compiled from official surveys and records, 
private plans and jiersonal surveys. I?y S. P. R. Triscott, C. E. Published hy 
G. II. Walker, Boston, 1.ST3. 

Map of the City of Worcester. S. P. H. Triscott, ('ivil Engineer. A. Meisel, Lith. 
Published by Drew, AUis & Co. Worcester, 1.S74. 

Map of Worcester, showing oldest roads and location of earliest settlers. Prepared 
for C. A. Wall's Reminiscences of Worcester, by S. Triscott. 1877. 

MS. map. Showing the distribution of lots after the re-settlement from 1713 to 1733. 
By E. B. Crane. Library of the Society of .\nti(iuity. 

Pocket map of the city of Worcester. Published only by W. L. ShepanI and H. R. 
Cummings, 18S5. 

There are at the City Hall six volumes of MS. maps giving the streets, lots, and 
location of the sewers. 



View of Worcester. Mass., taken from Union Hill. P. Anderson, del. On stone by 
R. Cooke. T. More's lithogra|)liy, Boston. No date, but about 183!)-40. 

View of Worcester, Mass., from the Insane Hospital. (Has views of Common, 
Main Street, etc., in margin.) Published by E. Whitefleld, New York, 1S49. 

View of Worcester. Photo, by Black & Butcheller. Colored lithograph by .1. H. 
Buflord. Published by D. B. Tarr, Boston. 1864. 

View of Worcester from Worcester Academy, Union Hill. Drawn from nature by 
E. Whitefield in 1876. (Large photogra|)h.) 

Bird's Eye View of the City of Worcester. Lithograph. O. H. Bailey and .1. C. 
Hazen, Boston, 1878. 



t In library of American Antiquarian Society. 



CHRONOLOGY. 



1657. The first grant of land within the present boundaries of Worcester. 

1667. A Committee appointed to view •' a place about ten miles westward of Marl- 
borow, called Quandsicamond ponds," to report " wliether it be capable 
to make a villiage," etc. This was tlie site of Worcester. 

IHes. Land granted to Daniel Gookin and others, and a Committee appointed to lay 
out a town. The Committee reported to General Court, October 24. 

l<JT:j-4. First settlement made. 

1674. First Indian deed of the Worcester plantation signed. First tavern, kept by 

Thomas Brovvu. 

1675. Settlement abandoned ou account of troubles with the Indians, who destroyid 

the houses of the settlers. 
16>i4. Second settlement, and the name of Worcester fixed by the General Court, 

October 15. Second innhokler, Nathaniel Henchman. 
1702. Town again abandoned by reason of the depredation of the Indians. Digory 

Serjent killed. 

1713. Final settlement of the town. 

1714. First male child born. 

1715. First death in the town after final settlement. 
1717. First meeting-house built. 

1719. First minister ordained. 

1722. First town meeting held by special order of the General Court. 

1726. First schoolmaster hired, Jonas Bice. 

1731. Worcester County established. First Superior and Probate Courts held. 

1733-4. First tavern after final settlement, Moses Brown, innholder. 

1740. First school-house erected. 

1763. Old South meeting-house built. 

1775. Captain Timothy Bigelow and Captain I5enjamin FUigg with their companies 

started for Cambridge, April 19th, on the receipt of news of the fight at 
Lexington. First issue of the Massachusetts Spy in Worcester, May 3. 
First Post-Oflice established. 

1776. First public reading of the Declaration of Independence in New England, 

Sunday, July 14, from the jiorch of the Old South meeting-house, by 

Isaiah Thomas. 
1785. Second Congregational Society (Unitarian) formed. 
1788. Last meeting of the Proprietors. 
1798. Mechanic Street burial ground laid out. 
1801. Brick court-house built. 



176 



BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



1811. Worcester Light Infantry orgiiuized. First bunk diartered (Worcester Banis) . 

1819. First cattle show. 

1828. Blackstone canal opened. First directory of Worcester issued. 

1829. Kirsl cnsraved map of villa;;e of Worcester published. 

1835. Fire Department established. Boston and Worcester Railroad opened. 

1S38. Rural Cemetery dedicated. 

1810. Worcester Guards organized. 

1848. Worcester incorporated as a city. 

I8.")J. IIopi^ Cemetery dedicated. 

ISIil. Departure of first troops in the Civil War: Light Infantry, City Guards and 
Emmet Guards. 

1SU3. First street railroad iu Worcester, August 31. 

1868. Memorial day first observed. 

1871. First City Hospital opened. 

1876. Centennial celebration of Fointli of July. First parade of the Worcester 

Continentals. 

1883. Electric Light first used for lighting the streets. 



^ 



I 



ERRATA. 

On Page 17, for 0. F. Ilachven read 0. B. Hachveu. 

On Page U5, for Gardner Burbank read Caleb and Elijah Bnrbauk. 

At the request of parties interested the committee accepted f(n' insertion an 
attempted designation of those taking part in the procession who served in the 
late war. The list is now believed to be incomplete, but the committee have 
no means at hand for its revision. The following corrections however deserve 
to be noted here : — 

On Page 08, Dr Charles H. Davis.f 

On Page 101. A. S. Roe.f 

On Page 103. Wm. S. Lincoln. f 






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